House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott says that on 22 June 1948, the Windrush ship arrived in Tilbury docks to bring people to respond to post-war labour shortages.

"Many of the passengers had never travelled before," she says, and many "were from deep, rural Jamaica" and had never seen a city like London.

These are "patriotic, courageous men and women who helped rebuild the country after the war". "This is not an issue which is going to go away," she adds.

There is a whole section of society from the Commonwealth, she says, from Yemen, Pakistan, India and other countries who may soon face similar problems.

"This debate is being watched all over the Commonwealth, and being watched by the Windrush generation themselves," she says.

"All roads lead back to the prime minister," she says, referring to how the "hostile environment" immigration policy was introduced, including the "deport first, appeal later regime" and the "go home vans".

"Given that the prime minister knew so much about the target regime," she asks why Mrs May did not work to correct the record or help the previous home secretary.

She says those on Labour benches are keen to remove illegal immigrants, but in this case, these people were here legally and were British citizens.

Select Committee
Parliament

Shortly members of the Treasury Committee will take evidence on the ongoing problems with TSB's banking service.

The witnesses are:

• Dr Paul Pester, Chief Executive, TSB
• Richard Meddings, Chairman, TSB
• Miguel Montes, Chief Operating Officer, Sabadell Group

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour has tabled this Opposition Day debate on Windrush.

The treatment of Windrush families, some of whom have been detained and threatened with deportation after their right to remain in the UK was questioned, has focused attention on the government's immigration policies.

The ongoing scandal has caused the resignation of the previous home secretary, Amber Rudd, who announced her departure late on Sunday night.

On Monday, new Home Secretary Sajid Javid vowed to "do right" by the people affected by the ongoing scandal.

The government said on Monday that 100 cases had already been resolved and that 500 appointments had been made to help people.

The Home Office said they had created a special team to deal with the cases.

You can read more on Labour's motion here.

House of Commons
Parliament

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DUP MP Emma Little-Pengelly is introducing her bill under the ten minute rule.

The bill is for support for victims of terrorism. It is intended to support those suffering from the effects of terrorist attacks, either through injury or bereavement. She says that once images of a terror attack disappear from the news, but for those impacted, "it is the end of the world as they knew it".

They may continue to mourn "the loss of a loved one", "gone in the most brutal of ways".

These are "tears which continue to fall long after the media frenzy has passed".

The idea behind the bill is that there should be a special pension for those suffering the after effects of a terror attack.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Maria Miller says that it is clear that some Commons staff cannot speak out on problems experienced, due to non-disclosure agreements.

She asks if he will make a statement on these allegations, as some of them centre on him.

The Speaker, John Bercow, says that "current and former staff are not constrained" from talking freely.

He says that the Clerk of the House has provided a note on Commons staff leaving under individual arrangements. He says in these matters, he has not himself been involved, and never has been.

He says the Clerk says they are not non-disclosure agreements in the traditional term of phrase. Mr Bercow says he has nothing more to add to his public statement.

The note from the Clerk will be made more widely available, he adds.

Hundreds of women may have died prematurely because they were not sent invitations to a final routine breast cancer screening, the health secretary has told the House of Commons.

Jeremy Hunt said the best estimates showed "there may be between 135 and 270 women who had their lives shortened as a result” of IT problems which date back to 2009.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Liberal Democrat Stephen Lloyd says "this is an utterly desperate situation".

He adds that the statement was "transparent", and he asks what the department will do to raise awareness of breast cancer screening for those not registered with a GP.

Mr Hunt replies that the department has the "be clear on cancer" campaign which is a national one. He adds that people also have to take an active and proactive role in detecting themselves.

"It is your own experience of how your own body is functioning which is the best detection method of all," he says.

A breast cancer screening error affecting 450,000 women may have led to hundreds of lives being cut short, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has revealed.

Mr Hunt told the Commons that a "computer algorithm failure" dating back to 2009 had meant many women aged 68 to 71 were not invited to their final routine screening.

It is not known whether any delay in diagnosis resulted in avoidable death, but it is estimated that between 135 and 270 women had their lives shortened as a result, he said.

An independent review has been launched into the "serious failure" in the programme, overseen by Public Health England (PHE), which was discovered in January.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

A no-score draw.

Jeremy Corbyn didn’t try to pin the PM with a series of forensic questions about her responsibility for the Windrush debacle; instead, with the local elections in mind, he delivered a series of attacks on the consequences of austerity for local services, schools, hospitals and the police.

Each was parried by the PM – and none came close to cracking her usual defensive carapace.

But that is not the point; those moments will provide snippets for social media in the final hours of the local election campaign, at a time when broadcasters are nervous about on-air electioneering.

It wasn’t a let-off, it was a choice of strategy.

The PM came prepared for a Windrush grilling, with her new Home Secretary Sajid Javid by her side.

She delivered her pre-emptive strike – a promise of a “lessons learned” report before the summer recess – early on.

And by the time the SNP’s Ian Blackford and Joanna Cherry raised the subject the pressure seemed to be off her – perhaps helped by heavy heckling from the group of Tory whips positioned at the bar of the House, on the left flank of the SNP bench.

From their side of the chamber, several Conservative MPs lobbed pretty blatant local election questions to the PM, to allow her to deliver some canned soundbites.

It underlined that these contests matter to all sides. Whether it actually influenced real voters is another question.

Brexit action

There was some interesting Brexit action on the sidelines – Peter Bone’s gloriously over the top promise to erect a statue to the PM as “Queen of Brexit” in his Wellingborough constituency masked the delivery of a shopping list of Brexit objectives.

So there was a sting in the flattery. Other Brexit questioners – Plaid’s Hywel Williams, Labour’s Karen Buck - got typical holding answers.

But Bill Cash’s call for the PM’s key Brexit adviser, the civil servant Sir Ollie Robbins to appear before his European Scrutiny Committee had more than a hint of menace.

Sir Ollie is being targeted because he is seen as pushing the PM towards a soft Brexit solution on the customs union issue.

The PM parried the question in a non-committal sort of way, but the mere asking highlights a developing threat on her Brexiteer flank. Tory MPs were probably avoiding blue-on-blue friendly fire incidents before election day. But their internal splits have not gone away.

Former home secretary's question

Meanwhile Amber Rudd, quite unblushingly, rose to ask a non-question about the security services.

It was essentially a signal that she had no intention of slinking away.

Some on the Remain wing of the Conservative Party, remembering her robust clash with Boris Johnson in the Referendum debates, hope she will join their number, and even provide an extra Commons vote for some soft-Brexit/Remain option.

There was no clue about that – just a ritual show of loyalty.

Watch this space.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative Dr Caroline Johnson asks what is being done to ensure people due for cervical and other cancer screenings are being invited to attend. She asks how long people can expect to wait for this to be rectified.

Mr Hunt says that his current advice says that this does not affect other screening programmes.

He says all women will be offered a date before the end of October, but in the vast majority of cases it will be sooner than that.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour's Dr Paul Williams asks if there is data which shows that uptake in women aged 68 to 71 decreased for breast cancer screening.

Mr Hunt says he will look into this "important clue". Overall uptake rate is around 80%, he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

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The SNP's Dr Philippa Whitford asks for assurances that women who have now moved to Scotland will still be contacted about this problem.

She says she takes issue with the statement that screening is not as important as it used to be, and tells MPs that early diagnosis is always beneficial.

She adds that breast radiology has a "huge shortage" in specialists.

Mr Hunt says he didn't say "you don't need to diagnose early," but that the advice he had received meant that in these cases, it will not make a difference to most of the women.

He says he will also let her know the exact date when Scottish government officials were informed. If there additional costs to the Scottish healthcare system then they will be recompensed.

He says he remains confident that everyone who remains registered with a GP will be contacted by the end of May, but, he adds, they cannot guarantee that everyone will be reached by the end of the month.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Dr Sarah Wollaston, chair of the Health Committee, says that the women affected by this need "consistent high quality evidence based guidance" on what they can do to weigh up the risks and benefits of breast cancer screening.

She asks if there will be high quality materials available to GPs, many of whom will need counselling after this.

Mr Hunt says that GPs will be briefing on this, and Macmillan will be helping with these cases. He says it is "fair" that the government explain that "different people have different views" on breast cancer screening.

"Anyone who wants a scan, we will do that scan," he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says that "each and every case will be looked into in detail"; and he says it is impossible to establish whether there is a link without looking into individual medical case notes, some of which will be of women who have died.

"Breast cancer treatment has improved dramatically in recent years" so he says it is less important for screening to take place as it used to be.

But, he adds, this error would still have had an effect on these women in these cases.

"We do need to find ways to improve oversight," he says, with modern IT systems reliability and safety can be improved. He says it was an upgrade to an existing system which actually caused this problem.

The department will provide extra resources that may be needed in order to do additional cancer screening, he adds.