House of Lords
Parliament

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Peers are embarking on their fifth day of committee-stage debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, external, which repeals the European Communities Act 1972 and writes EU law into UK law ahead of Brexit.

Committee stage is when peers carry out detailed line-by-line scrutiny of legislation, but amendments are not normally forced to a vote – this happens at report stage.

Labour's Lord Foulkes of Cumnock is introducing an amendment he says "is designed to be helpful" by formalising an agreement reached in December 2017 that EU citizens will continue to have recourse to the European Court of Justice.

He argues it "won't undermine" the aims of leaving the EU.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Neil Hackett from Missguided says that they also found out through the media that they were unknowingly selling real fur.

"I think it's very easy for any retailer or brand to say we didn't know we were selling fur", he says.

"Just because others are guilty, doesn't make you less guilty", chair Neil Parish tells him.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Dorothy Maxwell from House of Fraser says that their "incident" relates to a pair of gloves with a rabbit fur trim.

"We were notified through the investigation, which was obviously deeply concerning to us," she continues.

"Within a day, we had the product taken out of the Oxford Street store."

Select Committee
Parliament

Up now, the committee is hearing from retail representatives. The witnesses are Neil Hackett from Missguided, Paul Horsfield, from BooHoo and Dorothy Maxwell from House of Fraser.

Mr Horsfield says that once BooHoo was informed that the fur they were selling was not fake, the company discontinued their arrangement "very quickly".

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

The Lords continue their epic ten-day committee-stage debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, external - sitting at the earlier time of 11am in a bid to make some progress.

They'll be focusing on how retained EU law should be interpreted by UK courts after Brexit.

The bill as a whole repeals the European Communities Act 1972 and writes EU law into UK law ahead of Brexit.

Committee stage is when peers carry out detailed line-by-line scrutiny of legislation, but amendments are not normally forced to a vote – this happens at report stage.

Select Committee
Parliament

Claire Bass thinks the UK, which has banned fur farms, is now "outsourcing" animal cruelty to countries such as China, Finland and Poland.

She says the Prime Minister Theresa May and Environment Secretary Michael Gove are aspiring to make the UK a "world leader" in animal welfare.

But that "should not end at our borders," she insists.

"We shouldn't still be trading in the products of suffering."

Select Committee
Parliament

Claire Bass says the fur industry would like people to believe that there is "nice fur".

"Every investigation we've commissioned", she says "show the same welfare problems."

She says it is "impossible" to keep animals like mink and foxes in cages in a humane way.

"That's why the UK banned it," she adds

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative committee member Caroline Johnson asks Claire Bass, of the Humane Society, to outline the three tests to check whether fur is fake or real.

Ms Bass tells her that when the fur is parted, there'll be a fabric weave in fake fur or "skin" when it is real.

She suggests that consumers should also look at the tip of the fur, with real fur tapering to a point.

Finally, she says that if it's possible to cut a piece of fur off the item safely and set fire to it, real fur will "frazzle" and fake fur will melt.

BBC News

Select Committee
Parliament

"How receptive were retailers to the findings?", queries SNP MP Alan Brown.

"Some were left crying," replies BBC London's Alex Bushill.

He tells MPs about one woman who found that items she was selling were real fur, but when questioned, had admitted she hadn't questioned her supplier on the origin of the product.

"Some of them said they were going to take the items off sale", he adds.

Select Committee
Parliament

"How widespread is the misselling of real fur as fake fur?", asks DUP MP David Simpson.

"Where we're seeing the real volume is at the lower end of the market", says Claire Bass, listing market stalls, shops and online outlets as places where the Humane Society has found fake fur.

Select Committee
Parliament

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BBC London's Alex Bushill tells the committee he found most of the market vendors he investigated had been "duped" by their suppliers.

"Some of them were acting in good faith, I'm fairly confident of that", he tells chair Neil Parish.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Claire Bass from Humane Society International UK says the vast number of high street retailers have fur-free policies, because that's what consumers want.

She says that many shops were completely unaware, and it was more of a supply issue, but that there was "duplicity" when fake fur was being sold on some market stalls.

"They're using price to determine fake fur," she says.

Select Committee
Parliament

Up first, the committee is hearing from Claire Bass from Humane Society International UK, and journalists Sarah Hajibagheri from Sky, and Alex Bushill from the BBC.

Sarah tells the committee that she contacted Claire, spent a few hours in shops on Oxford Street with her and purchased items of "faux fur".

She says that when the fur was investigated, some was found to be real, from animals such as rabbits and cats.

Ms Hajibagheri says the story was one of the most watched on Sky News in 2017.

MPs are examining reports of an increase in sales of fake "faux fur".

Fur farming has been banned in the UK since 2000 but imports of fur from some animals, such as fox, rabbit and mink, are permitted under tight controls.

The Commons Environment Committee said it wanted to find out who was behind a spate of cases of real fur items being passed off as faux (fake) fur in shops.

Read more here.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Wednesday in Parliament.

We start our reporting at the Environment Committee, which is investigating reports that real fur is being passed off as fake fur to consumers.

The committee is speaking to journalists and to retailers.

At noon, it's the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson came to the Commons to answer an urgent question from the Conservative chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat.

The question was carefully worded, asking the foreign secretary to set out the government's policy on Russia. But it gave Boris Johnson a forum in which to comment on the suspected poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Mr Johnson said there was "much speculation about the disturbing incident in Salisbury" and he said he would not comment further on a specific case.

However, he added, "should evidence emerge" linking the Russian state to the incident, the UK government will "respond appropriately and robustly".

Labour's shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said everyone hoped for the "recovery of Mr Skripal and his daughter" and she agreed that the case had "disturbing echoes" of the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

Mr Johnson generated headlines when he suggested that if there was no change in the Russian situation, England's involvement in the 2018 World Cup - scheduled to start in Russia in June - could not go ahead in the "normal way".

Meanwhile, an investor and critic of President Vladimir Putin, Bill Browder, told the Commons Culture Committee inquiry into fake news that the Russians would like to take him back to Russia "and then kill me within the control of their own system".