Westminster Hall

From 4:30pm, MPs will take part in a Westminster Hall debate on the offence of "sex for rent", where rooms are offered by unscrupulous landlords in exchange for sexual favours.

An investigation by the Guardian newspaper, external found numerous adverts online for rooms all over the country, usually to young women in exchange for "intimacy" or "benefits". The Ministry of Justice has said that offering rooms in exchange for sex constitutes an offence of "inciting prostitution" which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years.

Peter Kyle, the Labour MP who is leading today's debate, is campaigning to have "sex for rent" turned into a specific criminal offence.

The shadow chancellor says it may be difficult to force an election even if MPs vote down Theresa May's Brexit deal.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Victoria Atkins says the amendments are designed to capture those who use offensive weapons in a private place that cannot claim self defence, defence of another or defence of property. Those who do have a claim to this would not be penalised.

She asks Philip Davies to withdraw his amendments, which added the offence of use of such weapons in a private place. He says he will.

Other amendments prevent the private possession of offensive weapons such as zombie knives, she says - they are already banned in private place.

The possession of a "curved blade of 50cm or over" for religious reasons would not be banned under the amendments.

The Sikh community had expressed concerns over the inclusion of such items in the bill, Ms Atkins says "it was never the government's intention to worry or criminalise acts of faith in that way."

On Labour MP David Hanson's amendment regarding the protection of retail staff, she says that "having looked very carefully, haven't been able to identify a gap in the law", so therefore cannot add it to the bill. The receives considerable push back from Labour MPs.

House of Commons
Parliament

The government has been successful in its attempts to amend the Offensive Weapons Bill.

Amendments 26-55 remove prohibitions on high velocity rifles from the bill, 309 MPs voted in favour and 274 voted against.

MPs are now considering government amendment NC16 and its related amendments, which concern the threatening of someone with an offensive weapon, bladed article or corrosive substance in a private place.

Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins moves the amendments.

Likely Brexit scenarios will result in a smaller economy than staying in the EU, government forecasts say.

House of Lords
Parliament

After questions, the Clerk of the House announces that the winner of one of the two vacant seats in the Lords reserved for hereditary peers is Rupert Carington, the 7th Lord Carrington. He is the son of Peter Carington, the 6th Lord Carrington who until his death earlier this year was the last surviving member of Winston Churchill's 1951-55 Cabinet.

When one of the 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers becomes vacant, an election is held among the sitting hereditary peers to replace them.

Lord Grocott, a campaigner against hereditary peer byelections, commends the House for being more open about the process this time, saying that "normally they're smuggled in in secret" and welcomes the "sunshine of publicity".

He also takes the opportunity to plug his private member's bill, the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill.

He says "the sooner the bill is on the statute book, the better".

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have divided to vote on government amendments 26 to 55, which remove prohibitions on high velocity rifles from the bill.

Conservative and DUP MPs had previously tabled their own amendment to the bill to remove this and threatened to defeat the government in a vote.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins says "laws should be effective and proportionate and we already have some of the strongest gun laws in the world."

She says the government has conducted a review of air rifles following a coroner's report of a 13-year-old boy who was shot accidentally with an air rifle in 2013, and have received over 50,000 responses from the public.

"This report will be published shortly," she says, and urges Labour MP Karin Smyth not to push this amendment to a vote.

Ms Atkins says high powered rifles are already subject to rigorous controls and are a licensed item, with those using them for shooting "having met the high standards set by both the law and their local police force".

"It's our intention to launch a consultation of all the issues that have arisen over the last few months with this bill, and this amendment will therefore be removed until then," she adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Independent MP John Woodcock says Huw Merriman's comments were "brave", and the government's "cave in" on the policy is "shameful".

He says they are ignoring all of the advice from police and officials. They are prioritising party politics over national security.

The home secretary should be defending the policy change in the Commons, he adds, not leaving it to minister Victoria Atkins.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Huw Merriman says he is making "an about turn" in his approach to this bill, as he had originally opposed the banning of some rifles. He now says he can't continue with that approach, despite pressure from his own gun club.

Parliament is duty bound to not rule out action that saves lives he says, even when the risk is deemed as "far too small" - people still die regardless.

"When the risks are invoked, when the law is broken and people lose their lives... we should look to minimise those risks even further."

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

SNP MP Stuart C McDonald says Scotland would like "any future licensing and regulation of air weapons to be left to the Scottish parliament".

On high energy rifles, Mr McDonald says he echoes what the shadow policing minister has said, as "the evidence was that these weapons are dangerous, and that there is nothing the police have to go up against these weapons."

He said the ban would have "only impacted on the recreation of a few number of citizens", noting that only 18 individuals in Scotland would have been affected altogether.

Mr McDonald says in the absence of evidence, the climbdown "reeks of party politics".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who put forward the original amendment concerning the ban on high powered rifles, says there have been "many false truths made in the press" about the reasons for other Conservatives supporting his views.

"This is not an issue of Brexit," he says "that is far from the truth."

Mr Clifton-Brown says "it is an illiberal thing for a Conservative government to ban these weapons without any evidence," and pays tribute to DUP MPs for signing his amendments.

"50 calibre rifles do not pose a danger to the public," he says.

You can read more about the government's climbdown on the decision to ban high powered rifles in the Guardian here, external.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Shadow policing minister Louise Haigh says "this should have been a comprehensive and honest response to the horrifying surge we are seeing in every community in the country" but this is a "watered down, far less effective bill in comparison to what was heard at second reading, as the government has rolled over to the wishes of its backbenchers".

"The government has allowed ideology to win the day, and has gone against the views of leading groups working in the area," she says.

"The government has again shown they are unable to govern in the national interest."

She adds that she is "disappointed" at the government's "comprehensive mismanagement" of the Offensive Weapons Bill. "How can the already limited measures in this bill have been held up three times over a row about high-calibre weapons?" she asks.

Ms Haigh says this was the secretary of state's own amendments, which the opposition supported, and yet the government has chosen to drop the ban on high powered rifles which "risks public safety".

"The decision reflects very poorly on this Parliament."

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly says he would like "to thank the government for listening" and dropping plans which intended to ban rifles with a power "of over 13,600 joules at the muzzle".

Mr Djanogly thanks ministers on behalf of all other members of shooting sports for dropping its proposals to ban 50 calibre weapons "which would do nothing to prevent crime" as "they are rare, expensive and have never been used in a crime in this jurisdiction."

He says "if we are going to start banning things just in case they could be used in an unlawful way, we may as well ban all possible weapons, but that is not the free society I wish to live in."

"I am a Conservative, and Conservatives in my mind don't ban things for no reason."

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour MP Karin Smyth says "the postponement of the Offensive Weapons Bill debate is unacceptable to our constituents."

Moving her amendment, new clause 2, Ms Smyth says her amendment seeks to require in law the department to publish a report on the safety of air weapons.

"It would strengthen the existing legislature on the guidelines of air weapons use," she says, "and would encourage age limits on the use of air weapons".

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs are now debating the remaining stages of the Offensive Weapons Bill.

The bill's report stage and third reading have been postponed twice over the last six weeks due to other business or, as some believe, because ministers feared defeat by backbench rebels.

The bill introduces offenses for possessing corrosive substances after the rise of acid attacks across the UK.

Jeremy Corbyn reminds the PM about her letter to Tony Blair calling for the publication of the Iraq War legal advice.

Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May trade barbs over the number of frontbenchers who have stood down under the others' leadership.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Marsha de Cordova is now tabling her Fire Safety (Leasehold Properties) Bill as a ten minute rule motion, which would require freeholders of properties that fail fire safety tests to carry out remedial work and sanction those that do not.

In April, Marsha de Cordova held a debate on the issue of who would pay to retrofit post Grenfell Tower fire prevention measures in buildings like towerblocks, which are divided into leasehold properties.