House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Andrew Bowie says that the last few weeks has seen an increase in attacks in Israel and Gaza.

He asks what is being done to ensure that UK Aid is not being used to support this conflict.

International Development Minister Alistair Burt says the department regularly audits spending to make sure that misdirection of funds like this cannot occur.

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

Brexit Minister Steve Baker has confirmed MPs will face a deal or no deal vote on the terms for leaving the EU.

He said the government had made it clear once a withdrawal agreement had been reached with the EU, ministers would ask parliament to accept it or move forward without an agreement.

Mr Baker said the House of Lords alone could not block the process if the House of Commons voted for the deal - saying the elected chamber "has to win".

He said a "landing zone" for negotiations was "coming into view" and a "trajectory emerging" saying there was a need to work together in the national interest to ensure "we land in that zone".

Mr Baker said any attempt by parliament to force a second referendum would be "extremely controversial" and urged MPs not to "frustrate the process".

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

International Development questions kick off in the Commons, with Labour's Nick Smith asking what is being done to promote humanitarian access in Yemen.

International Development Minister Alistair Burt says the UK has led the call for unhindered humanitarian access to Yemen.

Mr Smith says that the Hodeidah port in and out of Yemen is still only open "on a month by month basis". He says that cholera is a huge problem for the country.

Mr Burt replies that the government is doing as much as it can to allow access to the country through the Hodeidah port.

Select Committee
Parliament

Committee Chair Baroness Taylor of Bolton asks about the possibility of amendments to the withdrawal agreement and if it would be possible to amend it for there to be a referendum on the deal.

Brexit Minister Steve Baker says "the public have decided, and have given us their democratic decision...people do expect us now to deliver on that result" and says he wants to "appeal to Parliamentarians" to not attempt to amend withdrawal legislation in this way.

Baroness Taylor says she was asking "a technical question", not a political one.

Steve Baker says that "if such an amendment were to be carried we would have to look extremely carefully" at it and adds that the "range of amendments that is possible is in the bounds of the imaginations of members of parliament".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Battle resumes, and events have provided both the gladiators in PMQs with new lines of attack.

The Windrush issue provides Jeremy Corbyn with an almost irresistible line of attack, so the Conservatives may seek to pre-empt him.

Helpfully, former Downing Street special advisor Neil O’Brien has the first question, so he could well provide the PM with an opportunity to clarify and repeat her stance which she hasn't yet done in the Chamber.

This, in turn, might persuade the Labour leader to raise Syria instead – a subject which might attract the SNP leader, Ian Blackford, as well.

It would be a surprise if someone didn’t raise anti-Semitism, after yesterday’s bruising debate. The Conservatives may be inclined to leave it to Labour MPs and sit back and watch the red on red infighting which follows.

It is, incidentally, a Conservative-heavy list of questioners, so there will be an opportunity for Opposition members to “bob” up and down in their seats, and be called to balance the government side. That is the space in which the backbench attack dogs on both sides tend to operate.

Elsewhere, the questioners include the Scottish Conservative Stephen Kerr, who has a ten minute rule bill next week on unsolicited phone calls, and Labour’s Afzal Khan who has a private member's bill to cancel the proposed cut in the number of MPs, plus Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake, fresh from a Westminster Hall debate on the effect of Brexit on the veterinary profession in Wales.

And right at the end of the list lurks the formidable chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, Frank Field. He has just co-chaired an occasionally brutal inquiry into the collapse of the public-sector super-contractor, Carillion, and his verdict on their conduct has been withering. He could ask about that, or, perhaps, the new inquiry his committee is about to start, into benefit sanctions.

House of Commons
Parliament

International Development Questions kick off the sitting of the House of Commons at 11:30am today. This'll be followed by Prime Minister's Questions at noon.

Once PMQs is finished, we'll hear two urgent questions. One is from Labour's Harriet Harman on the gender pay gap, and a second is from the SNP's Joanna Cherry on Brexit and the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales.

Ms Cherry's question relates to the government position on the EU (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill and the Law Derived from the European Union (Wales) Bill.

Leaders of devolved administrations have accused the government of not listening to their concerns in Brexit negotiations.

There's then the second reading of the Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Bill, which has made its way to the Commons from the Lords. This aims to introduce a criminal offence for shining a laser at a person driving any vehicle.

Finally, there's a general debate on Industrial Strategy. The Commons will rise at around 7:30pm.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Brexit Minister Suella Braverman, formerly Suella Fernandes, is telling the committee that the government is planning for a vote on the EU withdrawl deal in October and there will be "sufficient time for the proper passage and consideration of a bill" around the deal.

She says the government is "very confident".

Labour's Baroness Drake asks about contingency plans should the timetable slip. The withdrawl deal also needs approval by the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the other 27 member states before the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019.

Suella Braverman appears to suggest there aren't any contingency plans, instead telling the committee that the withdrawl agreement and the legislation surrounding it are "essential" and will "enshrine and give a statutory footing to issues pertaining to citizens' rights, the implementation period and the financial settlement".

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee has immediately put to Brexit minister Steve Baker the question of what happens if the EU withdrawal agreement is rejected by Parliament. He says that the government believes "we will reach an agreement with the EU...which both houses will want to support".

Crossbench peer Lord Judge asks what happens if the houses are split, with one rejecting the deal while the other supports it.

Steve Baker says the government's "working assumption is that we would be surprised if the House of Lords decided to frustrate the opinion of the elected House of Commons" but pressed further he says there "would be a considerable flurry of conversation, we would find ourselves in an interesting and uncharted position" but eventually says that the "elected chamber is more powerful...ultimately, the Commons has to win".

Image source, HoL

Select Committee
Parliament

From 10:30am peers on the Constitution Committee are due to take evidence from two ministers from the Department for Exiting the EU, Steve Baker and Suella Braverman.

The committee is covering the government's promise of a "meaningful vote" on the EU withdrawal agreement and investigating what it means in practice.

Critics of the promise have pointed out that as it stands, the UK will leave the EU at the end of March 2019 regardless of what happens in any vote in Parliament, so the "meaningful" vote may be between leaving the EU with a deal, or leaving with no deal at all.

The Commons has been dominated by discussion of whether it should have been consulted before military action in Syria was approved last week during the Easter recess.

The Labour Party sought support from across the House on enshrining approval in Parliament for any military action, but the government benches insisted the action was necessary for national security.

The opposition's motion was passed but only after Labour voted against it in protest at the way the matter has been handled.

Later on in the day, the Commons moved to a general debate on anti-Semitism, which featured many impassioned speeches from both Labour and Conservative backbenchers. You can see two speeches from Labour MP Ruth Smeeth and Conservative Robert Halfon here.

There were two government defeats in the Lords - on trailer safety, and on the new database of rogue landlords.

The Commons resumes at 11:30am tomorrow, with international development questions, followed by Prime Minister's Questions at noon.

House of Lords
Parliament

The government sees off defeat, as peers vote 179 to 166 against Labour's motion to regret that tenants will not be given access to the new database of rogue landlords.

That's where we leave our live text coverage for today, with peers returning tomorrow for report-stage scrutiny of the EU Withdrawal Bill.

This will bring the first prospect of votes since the legislation has been in the Lords.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Housing Minister Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth responds to the regret motion, noting that "the overwhelming majority of private landlords provide decent and well-maintained homes", but there are those who "knowingly rent out housing which is unsafe substandard".

He outlines steps being taken to combat irresponsible landlords, including financial penalties, banning orders and the database under discussion.

He says the databases have been set up to help local authorities target rogue landlords and giving tenants access could be addressed in separate legislation.

But Labour's Lord Kennedy is not reassured, and forces a vote on his motion to regret.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Home Secretary Amber Rudd says that this has been an "extraordinary and harrowing debate" and says she will leave the Chamber today "even more committed" to checking that the government is doing everything it can on anti-Semitism.

She says that members of the Labour Party have not "held back" and have spoken "courageously" on "the sheer horror and scale of what they have had to put up with", she adds.

She says she believes the "whole House has delivered a strong message to the Leader of the Labour Party: take action," she states.

She adds that the words have been strong from the Labour Party, but there has been a lack of action from Labour on the matter.

She urges him to listen to the speeches from those on the Labour benches, which were "not in any way anti-Labour".

"The Labour Party is a noble and honourable party, and it is absolutely wrong that this corner of anti-Semitism has been allowed to flourish," she says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott says that she came into politics to tackle racism, and that the debate has been emotional for her. "One anti-Semite in the Labour Party is one too many," she says.

"I'm sad we're having this debate, but I'm proud to represent one of the oldest Jewish communities in the UK," she says.

"We are looking at introducing a programme of education, quite possibly delivered by organisations like the Jewish Labour Movement," she says.

"We acknowledge that dealing with some of these complaints has been too slow," she adds.

She says she is the MP who has received more abuse than all other female MPs put together, she hopes that the government will take all these issues seriously.

"In this party, we take anti-Semitism seriously, nothing is gained by accusing the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition as being an anti-Semite," she says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Labour's Ian Austin says "the problem on the hard left is that some of them believe they're so virtuous, they've fought racism all their lives, how can they possibly be guilty?"

He says this is why the hard left say anti-Semitism has been "whipped up" into a smear campaign.

"Why is it that they get angry about people complaining about anti-Semitism, rather than the people responsible for it?" he asks.

"They [the Labour leadership] have got a big opportunity, take this much more seriously, deal with the cases more quickly, kick these people out straight away."

He adds that Labour should respond to a letter received from Jewish organisations in recent weeks.

House of Lords
Parliament

The Lib Dems back Labour's regret motion, with Lord Shipley saying of the database of rogue landlords, "to be effective it has to be transparent".

He argues the regulations as currently drafted are unclear, suggesting a tenant who applies for information on a landlord in one local authority might not be told if that landlord had received a banning order in another local authority.

Sterling hovers around $1.43 amid expectations the Bank of England will raise interest rates.