House of Commons
Parliament

The big news of the day was the Windrush debate. After nearly six hours of debate, the Labour motion was defeated by a majority of 95.

The motion would have required the government to give the Home Affairs Committee access out all documents relating to Windrush cases from 2010 onwards.

The government said this would divert resources unnecessarily and at cost to the taxpayer. Labour said that the documents needed to be in the public domain for scrutiny.

PMQs was dominated by immigration, the NHS and education budgets.

A statement from the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announced a big failure in an NHS IT system which was responsible for inviting women to attend mammograms as part of the national breast cancer screening programme.

Women affected will be contacted by the end of the month to be offered alternative appointments. The backlog will be cleared by the end of October, the health secretary said.

The Commons is back tomorrow at 9:30am with Brexit questions.

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Government spokesman Lord Keen of Elie introduces the key amendment on devolution, which means the consent of the devolved legislatures would normally be required for changes to UK-wide powers, and that those powers will be held in Westminster for no more than seven years.

He says he’s “immensely pleased” the Welsh government has accepted the proposal and "disappointed" the Scottish government has not.

He insists the process of getting to this point "was collaborative work that delivers for both sides".

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The Labour Party motion, forcing the government to unveil internal documents on Windrush, fails.

Ayes: 221

Noes: 316

Majority: 95

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Parliament

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Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes says that she has visited both immigration centres in Croydon and Sheffield this week and is pleased with the humanity with which the staff treat the applicants.

She adds that she is looking forward to her appearance in front of the Home Affairs Committee next week to explain the ongoing crisis in immigration.

"We work hard to solve individual cases," she says, "but it is an absolute imperative to me that we get this right."

With that, the Commons divides. We can expect a result at 7:15pm.

If the Labour motion is voted for, this will force the Home Office to give the Home Affairs Committee access to all documents relating to Windrush, including emails and text messages.

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Parliament

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Shadow home office minister Afzal Khan says the Windrush crisis "has revealed something rotten at the core of this government" and he adds that the home secretary's resignation "did not put the issue to bed".

He says that if the government votes against the motion then it will "expose their crocodile tears" on the matter.

"The government has known about specific problems with the Windrush generation for a long time too," he adds.

He says that people have wrongfully been denied "healthcare and public services".

"Their citizenship needs to be confirmed, not granted," he says, adding that indefinite leave to remain "is not good enough".

House of Lords
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Peers vote 309 to 242 for Lord Patten's amendment requiring ministers to act in a way that is compatible with the 1998 Northern Ireland Act and the Belfast principles.

The Belfast principles include partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships within Northern Ireland, between the North and South of Ireland, and between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.

Senior ministers have met to try to thrash out the UK's new customs arrangements post-Brexit.

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Parliament

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Conservative Lord Patten rises to speak at the conclusion of the debate on the amendment.

"Recognising that we're simply stating in this new clause what the government's policy is supposed to be, I'd like the House to give us its decision on this," he says.

Peers will now vote, with a result expected at around 6.50pm.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Winding up for the government, is Northern Ireland Minister Lord Duncan of Springbank.

"We are clear that there can be no border down the middle of the North Sea," he tells peers.

Lord Duncan says that Lord Patten's amendment "is a statement of government policy" but the language is of "political statements".

"It is the intention of the government to return... with the exact detailed language," he says, explaining why the government will oppose the amendment.

He says reflections from peers from Northern Ireland who are uneasy with the amendment should give peers pause.

Baroness Altmann asks whether the idea of a "no deal" is off the table, because if the UK "crashes out" of the EU onto WTO rules, a hard border is unavoidable.

Lord Duncan says that if there is no resolution, then all will be the poorer. The important thing is that agreement is reached in the negotiation, and then returned to the Commons for debate, he says.

Peers are debating amendment 88. This is the amendment below:

Image source, HoL

For all amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill, go to this page, external, where you can find them all and search for relevant amendments.

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Parliament

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Murphy of Torfaen is winding up for Labour.

"Brexit does affect the principles of the Good Friday Agreement," he says.

The amendment enshrines its principles in legislation, Lord Murphy explains, and "rejects a hard border" and urges peers to support it.

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Lib Dem Northern Ireland spokesperson Baroness Suttie says the government has produced no new proposals on the border since August.

"Time is running out and they cannot keep kicking the can down the road," she warns.

She urges peers to support the amendment.

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Conservative former Brexit minister Lord Bridges of Headley says the UK must not accept "the poison pill of that backstop" in the December agreement of a sea border with the EU.

Having ruled out a hard land border, "would it not be odd only to erect them in Irish Sea?" he asks.

He urges peers to reject the amendment.

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Liberal Democrat Sir Ed Davey says "we have to learn from this scandal... legal or illegal, these are people".

"It is a huge problem, a systemic problem with the Home Office, and it has to be got right," he adds.

"Just, think," he says, appealing to the members of the government benches.

"It is proportionate to the level of the scandal that we are facing," he says, referring to the motion. It includes time when the Liberal Democrats were in government, he says, but he is still willing for these documents to be released.

He says it is not just Commonwealth citizens, as he is currently dealing with a case of a Moroccan who came to the UK in 1973, lost his papers in a fire, and is now homeless and in need of treatment.

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Labour's Emma Reynolds says that she had to intervene last minute in the case of her constituent, Paulette Wilson, who was about to be put on a flight to the Caribbean, which she hasn't visited in 50 years.

She asks why it has taken a dedicated Guardian journalist and pressure from Caribbean leaders for this to be investigated.

"It is absurd and immoral to have removal targets for migrants," she says.

"It has fostered a culture of disbelief and of treating people like numbers".

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Conservative Lord Trimble says it's "a mistake to link this process with the maintenance of peace in Northern Ireland" and doing so could be seen as "scaremongering".

He says Dublin and Brussels want a special arrangement tying Northern Ireland to the EU which would see its link to the rest of the UK weakened.

He further argues voting for the amendment would strengthen the hand of Michel Barnier and weaken the hand of our own government.

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Lib Dem Lord Alderdice, former speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, says if the government tries to fob off commitments on Northern Ireland to future legislation it will in the minds of Irish and N Irish people "justify the phrase 'perfidious Albion'".

Crossbencher and former terrorism reviewer Lord Carlile of Berriew says if peers vote for the amendment it will show the UK government and the EU this is "a subject which cannot be neglected".

Crossbencher Lord Eames, former Primate of All Ireland, says the border is not just Northern Ireland's - it's the whole UK's - border with Europe and there's "a growing apprehension we will be left to carry the can".

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Parliament

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Labour's David Lammy says that it is impossible for the hostile environment to sit alongside a policy of listening to human stories in the immigration system.

"The Windrush generation are here because of slavery," he says, "we know what compliance means, it's written deep into our souls, and passed down from our ancestors".

"Slaves being whipped in a cotton field...were compliant," he says.

"This Parliament provided compensation for the 46,000 British slave owners...the slaves got nothing," "now our ancestors are being shackled and chained" and sent back to the countries they left centuries ago, he says.

He says there are "thousands" of people unable to return to the UK in the Caribbean, yet the Home Secretary insists that there are no cases of deportations that he is aware of.

"I will be back here in five years' time, if we continue down this road," he says, "a blurring" has taken place between people here legally and those here illegally, he adds.