Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, hoC

Also giving evidence to the committee is Edward Lucas, a security expert from the Centre for European Policy Analysis.

Labour's Chris Matheson tells him the committee heard from Facebook that there had been little Russian "meddling" in the EU referendum.

"This is something we should be able to get empirical data on, but we can't because we don't have the cooperation of Facebook," says Edward Lucas.

"We need transparency about advertisements on all the communication service providers."

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

"I've been threatened on a number of occasions with death", says Bill Browder.

"I've received kidnapping threats."

He claims that the Russians would like to arrest him and take him back to the country - "and then kill me within the control of their own system".

Select Committee
Parliament

The chair Damien Collins continues by asking Mr Browder whether campaigns need to be supported by people in the UK, rather than just "firing information in from the outside".

"If it was just from the outside, it would be less effective," replies Mr Browder.

He says that the concept of "media fairness" means that people with a viewpoint favourable to the Russian government are often heard.

"There are some things when you don't have to get the say of the pro-Putin people on television here to give them equal airtime," he argues.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Bill Browder tells the committee that one of the "big misconceptions" about so-called fake news is that it is somehow "just a technical issue" involving the use of social media.

There is a "huge technical component" to the matter, he says, but it "all comes back to a source" - in his case, the Russian government and officials.

He adds that the "crux of the problem" is that Russian officials can tell "outright lies" which are then disseminated through various channels.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Committee chair Damian Collins opens up the committee's hearing by asking Bill Browder about his "personal experience".

Mr Browder says he ran "naming and shaming" campaigns which weren't popular with Vladimir Putin.

He describes how he was expelled from the country, and goes on to tell the committee his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was "killed in custody by eight riot guards with rubber batons" in November 2009.

"Since then, I have been on a campaign to get justice for Sergei Magnitsky", he says.

Bill Browder was on Newsnight last night talking about Sergei Skripal, the former Russian agent, convicted of spying for Britain, who was found slumped, alongside his daughter, on a shopping centre bench in Salisbury.

Bill Browder has tweeted about fake news emanating from Russia.

Image source, Getty Images

Bill Browder campaigned to hold to account Russians who he claims are responsible for the death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in 2009.

Mr Browder urged Washington to support a bill which became the Magnitsky Act when it was signed into law in December 2012.

It featured a list of 18 individuals, including three from Russia's interior ministry. Mr Browder claimed Magnitsky's List - as it became known - included people "who signed the documents" leading to the lawyer's imprisonment and death.

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Welcome to our live coverage of Tuesday in Parliament.

We're kicking off our reporting shortly when the culture committee resumes its inquiry into fake news.

Today, the committtee takes evidence from Russian investor and Putin critic Bill Browder. He's also chief executive of Hermitage Capital Management.

It is also hearing from Edward Lucas, senior vice president at the Centre for European Policy Analysis.

At 11.30am, Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner will speak to the committee.

The prime minister has been briefing MPs about her latest Brexit plan, first set out in a speech on Friday.

She told the Commons that the UK could "set an example to the world" in the way it negotiates a new relationship with the EU.

She said the task would be "complex" but a deal was in both sides' interests.

But the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the UK's objectives were "no clearer" after "20 wasted months".

"The prime minister still cannot bring clarity to these negotiations and still cannot bring certainty to British businesses or workers," he said.

Meanwhile, the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford concluded that the prime minister's speech was characterised by "empty rhetoric".

In a statement lasting around 90 minutes, Brexiteers and Remainers in the Conservative Party were largely supportive of the Prime Minister.

House of Lords
Parliament

Winding up for the government on this amendment, Lord Duncan of Springbank pledges "no weakening, no regression" when it comes to family-friendly employment rights.

"We have never been bound by those [EU rules as anything more than a foundation," he tells the House.

He says he can guarantee the Working Time Directive will not be rolled back, following requests from peers to do so.

Baroness Lister withdraws her amendment - and that's where we leave our live text coverage of Parliament for tonight.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Lister of Burtersett introduces an amendment which would require ministers to report to both Houses of Parliament whenever new or amended EU law in the area of family friendly employment rights, gender equality and work-life balance for parents and carers would have changed domestic law, had the UK remained a member of the EU.

She argues this would help the government's "words match their deeds" on employment rights.

House of Commons
Parliament

The House meets at 11:30am on Tuesday and the session begins with questions to Justice Secretary David Gauke.

The day's legislation is the second reading of the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill which, as the title suggests, will allow energy regulator Ofgem to limit how much companies can charge customers for their standard variable tariffs.

The law will limit the cost of firm's standard default tariffs until 2020. Following that, the cap may be extended on an annual basis until 2023.

House of Commons
Parliament

Finally in the Commons tonight, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas speaks in a short adjournment debate on the liquidation of DMB Solutions, which operated in her Brighton constituency.

Dozens of homeowners say they have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket after the construction firm went bust, leaving building projects unfinished.

On its website DMB Solutions states it has ceased trading and has been put into liquidation by Begbies Traynor.

Brighton and Hove Trading Standards said it received a number of complaints about the city firm and was investigating alleged unfair trading.

The BBC has approached DMB and Begbies Traynor for a comment.

Read more.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Digital Policy Minister Margot James praises the "excellent" speeches on press freedom, including what she describes as a "real show-stopper" from Jacob Rees-Mogg.

She tells MPs that ministers are "quite clear we are going to attempt to defeat" the Lords amendments in the House of Commons.

When it appears that the minister is going to conclude a short reply to the debate, there are noises of discontent on the Labour benches.

When Ms James refuses to give way to opposition MPs, a number of them raise points of order with the Speaker, calling for the minister to respond to a wider range of points made during the debate.

Speaker John Bercow says it is up to the government to decide the length its reply to a debate, adding that Ms James is "a legendarily succinct minister".

House of Lords
Parliament

Brexit Minister Lord Callanan assures peers that children's rights are a matter of "utmost importance".

He outlines various pieces of domestic legislation which protect children's rights, claiming the amendment aimed at retaining aspects of the Charter of Fundamental Rights would "not in reality enhance existing safeguards".

Instead, he suggests, it would place "new burdens on public bodies and individuals".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow digital economy minister Liam Byrne replies to a debate that has been largely dominated by arguments over press regulation.

"Some of it has even been about data protection," he jokes.

He says Labour has "a great deal of optimism" about new technology but argues that a "new world of trade... is built on a world of trust" and the safe exchange of data.

"The clauses around immigration are a mistake," Mr Byrne adds. "We will seek to delete them."

The Labour spokesman also attacks the decision to scrap part two of the Leveson Inquiry, arguing that it would have examined "one of the most egregious violations of data privacy that we have ever seen in the public sphere".

He urges ministers to "listen again to the pleas of Lord [Justice] Leveson".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Andy Slaughter defends the measures in Section 40 - and in Lords amendments to this bill - which some have called "punitive damages", describing them instead as "cost-shifting".

"The purpose of cost-shifting is that an individual... who [has] been horrifically maligned, can go to court can get justice" without fear of, for example, losing their house because of the cost.

He adds the alternative of "no win, no fee" legal action is now "far more difficult than it used to be" to obtain in this area.

House of Lords
Parliament

Responding to this amendment on children's rights, Labour spokesperson Baroness Sherlock tells peers that "not enough attention has been paid to how Brexit will affect children".

She says there are certain protections under the Charter which have "no equivalent in UK law".

She also points out, as other peers have done, that there is "no specific statutory provision to protect children's rights" in the UK as a whole - although some have been introduced in Scotland and Wales.