Select Committee
Parliament

"It is definitely the case that Brexit is not the priority in the vast majority of the 27," David Davis says, on other EU members states.

"Part of my task is to make sure that each individual country is aware of its own interest in Brexit," he continues, adding that it is not "automatic that they know".

Select Committee
Parliament

Baroness Kennedy asks what the other "real sticking points" that keep David Davis "tossing and turning" at night.

"Nothing keeps me awake at night," he replies.

He says that the difficult aspects of negotiations continue to change regularly and predicts that during the negotiations on the economic partnership there'll be a "tussle" over financial services.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Bob Seely used parliamentary privilege in the debate on the bill to cite what he described as 2005 files covering the period from the mid-1990s and relating to Christopher Chandler, who is linked to the Legatum Institute think-tank.

Mr Seely said the French security services described Mr Chandler as "an object of interest" to the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) "since 2002 on suspicion of working for Russian intelligence services".

Mr Seely said: "These documents are brief, terse, factual files listing activities, associations and judicial action. They have been authenticated by senior French intelligence sources and by British and American counterparts familiar with their contents. "The documents indicated a link to a noted individual in this country with Russian intelligence.

"These files are dated from 2005. They cover the period from the mid-1990s. The documents concern Christopher Chandler and his brother. Christopher Chandler is a public figure owing to the Legatum Institute.

"In citing this evidence I note the words of (Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter) who in November 2017 called for the House's Intelligence and Security Committee to examine Mr Chandler.

"According to the French security services, as recorded by their colleagues in Monaco, and clearly I'm confident these documents are genuine, Mr Chandler is described as having been 'an object of interest to the DST since 2002 on suspicion of working for Russian intelligence services'."

Response from Legatum

A Legatum Institute spokesman said in a statement: "Christopher Chandler has never been associated directly or indirectly with Russian intelligence or the Russian state.

"Neither Christopher Chandler nor anyone at Legatum is aware of any such alleged 'investigation' by French authorities, not 16 years ago or at any time since.

"To be clear Christopher Chandler has never been approached at any time by the French or any other authorities regarding Russia and maintains a sterling record of ethical business practices earned over many decades.

"These accusations are complete nonsense, and have been previously rebutted by the Legatum Group."

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams is introducing a regulation extending licensing hours on 18 and 19 May until 1am for the Royal wedding.

She says it's a national celebration she's sure all Lords will be "cheerful to support".

It receives cross-party backing.

Welsh peer is criticised for likening Theresa May's Brexit approach to the Nazi takeover of Germany.

Select Committee
Parliament

Confusingly, the committee is actually made up of seven committees - the main select committee and six sub-committees.

Combined, these committees are made up of around 74 members of the Lords.

The sub-committees each deal with a specific policy area relating to Brexit, such as justice, finance etc. The select committee oversees this work.

Like all select committees, it can call witnesses to give evidence.

The committee is a pre-referendum body. It's original role involved scrutinising EU legislation, especially for compliance with the 'subsidiarity principle', under which the EU should only take action if effective action cannot be taken at a national level.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws asks if there'll be a draft legal text before the next EU summit in June. Mr Davis says that he thinks October is more likely.

She continues by asking the Brexit secretary how he imagines disputes between the EU and UK being resolved after exit day.

"When liberty is at stake, you need to have a court," she explains.

"My expectation... is that in essence we'll have to have a choice of forum. The forum will be dictated by where the issue arises," Mr Davis replies.

House of Commons
Parliament

The MPs return from their vote on New Clause 19.

Ayes: 301

Noes: 314

Majority:13

Therefore, the clause which would require UK bank accounts to be associated with SLPs fails to be added to the bill.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, AFP/Getty Images

Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) were originally announced as being under review by the government as far back as January 2017.

The investigation started as a result of claims that Scotland's law on SLPs could be exploited as a money-laundering front for international organised crime.

This is because the legal status of a limited liability partnership can be protected from scrutiny.

Scottish newspaper reports have claimed that SLPs were being sold in Latvia, Ukraine and Cyprus so people could access banking in Latvia and Cyprus.

On 29 April 2018, the Business Department announced that $80bn had been moved through SLPs from Russia in four years. It further announced that five individuals were behind thousands of SLPs registered between January 2016 and mid-May 2017.

According to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

• SLPs are a business entity provided for in UK law
• Limited partnerships are formed by at least two partners, one of which must be a general partner - who is liable for any debts incurred - and one limited partner - who has limited liability but cannot play a role in how the partnership is run.
• SLPs differ to limited partnerships elsewhere in the UK as they have "legal personality", which allows them to enter into contracts, take on debts or own property. In a limited partnership in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, this is done by the partners.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have divided to vote on New Clause 19 to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill at report stage.

The clause, tabled by SNP Treasury spokesperson Alison Thewliss, would require at least one person in a Scottish Limited Partnership to use a UK bank account.

We can expect a result of the division at 4:45pm.

Select Committee
Parliament

Brexit Secretary David Davis is up in front of the Lords European Union Committee and welcomed by chair Lord Boswell of Aynho.

He begins by asking David Davis for an update on negotiations on the withdrawal agreement.

Mr Davis has to "dash off and dash back" for a division in the Commons, before he gets to answer any questions. He'll be back in around 15 minutes.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, giving evidence to MPs on childhood obesity, is presenting a BBC documentary series on Britain's obesity crisis.

"Britain's Fat Fight" looks at the many facets of the crisis, from supermarkets to restaurants, and asks what can be done to make the country healthier.

In a blog for BBC News, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall wrote: "Today, 25% of us are obese. If things don't change, by 2050 that will be 50%.

"It makes me wonder if I want to live until then (I'll be 85!). Because if I do, and we have indeed hit that horrendous statistic, the country will be buckling under an epidemic of type 2 diabetes, cancers, amputations, strokes and heart attacks."

In collaboration with Newcastle City Council, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall set up Newcastle Can, external, an initiative aiming to get communities work together towards healthier lives.

It aims to get the city to collectively lose 10,000lbs in weight.

Select Committee
Parliament

Jamie Oliver suggests that it is "immoral" not to have a view on the advertising of unhealthy food to children.

"The kids, en masse, are watching the X Factor", he says.

If they watch a whole season of that, that is a junk food movie they're going to see".

He says that advertising should be "reformulated", not stopped, and says marketing directly to children "is wrong".

Select Committee
Parliament

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says taxation has to be used in a "very clear cut way".

He adds that there is a lot of improvement to be made in labeling and portion size, citing breakfast cereals in particular.

"When it comes to clarity of labelling... if we don't get everybody playing the same game then people are going to duck and dive, and invent their own version of what a portion should be," he explains to the committee.

He says that there is a risk that parents won't get the information they need in a clear, visible way.

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption organisation, has welcomed the government's adoption on the amendment on Overseas Territories.

It says it has has found at least £4.4bn worth of property in the UK bought with suspicious wealth – half of this using companies based in just the British Virgin Islands alone.

It says it hopes the territories would now "shut the door to dirty money".

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson says that it is vital that the UK plays its part in upholding international laws.

"We are not just talking about numbers and spreadsheets," she says. It is a "life-and-death matter," referring to how investigative journalists have been killed over their work into these cases.

She says that Scottish Limited Partnerships are a "very real problem" and that it has been in the "public domain" that this is a problem for 18 months.

She says there were 17,000 SLPs registered to "just 10 addresses", which should have caused automatic flagging which needed to be investigated.

We should be setting "our own house in order", she says, referring to how British Crown Dependencies could be forced to publish beneficial owner lists under the new legislation. The British government could be setting an example on this, she adds.

Select Committee
Parliament

This is a tax for good, this is a tax for love," continues Jamie Oliver.

He says the sugar tax was the first time that the government "showed their steel", calling the move "symbolic".

"It was a fantastic tax and there's possibly some logic about how we expand it," he says.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Paul Williams is asking a series of questions about the soft drinks industry. He asks Jamie Oliver to elaborate on his previous comments praising the sugar tax on soft drinks.

He says that through one of his television programmes he was "able to force debate in government", calling the tax "fantastic".

He picks up a bottle of Ribena, and several packets of sugar to show how much the drink used to contain before the legislation came into force.

"What we've seen... is two out of three soft drinks companies reduce and reformulate."

Select Committee
Parliament

TV chef Jamie Oliver first started talking about tackling childhood obesity in 2005 with his documentary series Jamie's School Dinners, in which he tried to introduce healthy meals to a primary school in east London - and rendered Turkey Twizzlers infamous in the process.

From there, Mr Oliver broadened his campaign - Feed Me Better, external - to the rest of the country. The Department for Education created a £60m initiative, the School Food Trust, to develop skills and knowledge among school kitchen staff.

In the years since, Mr Oliver has continued to campaign on the issue. He has advocated for the reintroduction of food education and for restrictions on advertising junk food to children.

In 2017, he criticised government plans to scrap free school meals for all infant school-aged children.