PMQ's: Corbyn goes onto Northamptonshire council collapse, was it Tory incompetence at local or national level (nice question), May goes onto general councils records sees Tories tax less which was a awful answer, Corbyn goes onto council's warnings due to cuts and Northampton's failure on outsourcing raising question about Tory model, May says Corbyn is ignoring the inspectors report including that it was not a case of underfunding which does act to negate one of the points then trying the "costs less" argument. Corbyn points out the council has gone bust and argues other councils have borrowed the formula like Barnet and lays into it's record then goes onto the funding gap for councils yet national government gives tax cuts to super rich. When heckled, gives a list of what the money could have been used for instead. May seizes on mention of bin collections and attacks Labour's record in Birmingham and it's failure to collect bins, points out richest take the brunt of taxes, claims Gwynne wants land value tax, hotel tax and to stop referendum on big council tax rises. Corbyn goes on defensive about Labour's stance on Corbyn, quotes Tory leader of Surrey complaints about money and argues Tories is "pay more, get less", May points to council tax bands being lower then quotes Harringey, Cornwall and Brighton leaders ousted for wanting to build more homes and opposing anti-Semitism in an effectively delivered attack. Corbyn ignores it with nothing more then "we build houses, Tories privatize", talks about Leicester of cuts and tax rises due to lack of funding then jumps onto business rates destroying high streets. May points to Tories building more homes then Labour councillors in Ashfield joined Tories due to hard left takeover. Corbyn goes on buisness rates rise again and quote Mary Portes that used her as a PR campaign, good summary of Tories closing things down while quoting Tory head of local goverment saying funding is unsustainable. May goes on general more spending due to econimic success, mentions unemployment and employment record which will help Labour moderates
Local elections must be coming up... Corbyn uses Northamptonshire well as an opener before widening out but Barnet one lacked force, he wandered off effectiveness towards more but he seemed to get rattled by May and some of it felt like falling back on ideology rather then effectiveness, his business rates attack lacked a build up to land while he allowed himself to be trapped on Northamptonshire with a sloppy claim. However "pay more, get less" is potentially a killer slogan and he will feel he got enough to use during local elections. Not sure if May's Gwynne attack will resonate and "less taxes" seems a weak defence to things like Northamptonshire, the ousted Labour leaders might be too obscure and though she grew stronger and stronger, she didn't get strong lines for the elections. Blackford asks if May believes subverting the democrat process is unacceptable, May senses a trap as she goes for a general answer, Blackford then lists Tory connections to Cambridge Analytics and asks for disclosure, can see papers running with this. May says no current company with that company (or it's parents), is concerned at the general allegations and sets out steps being taken without answering the question.
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-A sense SNP may find it hard to make real headway on fishing deal as they want to stay in EU which would of course keep us in the fishing agreements
-Accusations Julian Smith says "fishermen aren't going to go vote Labour"
-Hunt says all parties have made NHS and social care funding situation worse by policiting with it giving death tax from Tories and dementia tax from Labour
-Commons Home Affairs Committee fears we need longer transition to sort out security deal, fears government is making too many assumptions that what they want will simply happen
-Mark Zuckerberg summoned by Culture Committee
-Lords vote to keep us in Euratom
-Sir James Bevan, the Environment Agency chief executive, says we need to talk about pulling out of areas of very high flood risk and others other then central government to help pay for flood defences
-Welsh government looking at taking councils down from 22 to 10
-Guernsey set to be first place in Britain to allow assisted dying
-Unions and government agree NHS pay
-Pay up to 2.6% in first three months, employment hits joint high of 75.3%, unemployment of 4.3% is lowest since 1975. A sense we nearing end of pay squeeze
-13 Tories and 1 DUP have signed a letter hinting they would vote against transition deal and making clear they consider it unacceptable, should leave the EU fishing agreement and EU fishermans forced to land catch at UK ports (though will be allowed some fishing)
-Lord Callanan says if deal is rejected by parliament then we Brexit with no deal
-Hunt hints he agrees with calls for a NHS tax
-Boris probably managed to avoid getting anyone extended prison sentence this time when speaking to foreign affairs select committee (for first time that disaster), May might not appreciate his comparing world cup to Nazi Olympics (prompted by Ian Austin to say that to be fair). Been noted that May's PPS Seema Kennedy always sent to watch Boris on these occasions.
Says trail leads back to Kremlin, sending a message to defectors and suspect chemical agent was to ensure everyone knew it was Russia, Russia stalling and lies made going further on Litvenenko case difficult and denies it was due to Russian money, indicates he is not happy with select committees holding sessions abroad as it risks being seen as by the government. Putin wasn't elected with any validity, that the man in charge of English fans safety at Russian embassy has been expelled is a problem, has funding for 250 more diplomatic posts (one above France), Commonwealth undervalued here.
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-Redwood wants UK to declare transition deal unacceptable and get changes to fishing part
-Seema Malhotra
on speech therapy-Lord Adonis fears
Ireland could become like Cyprus-Rees-Mogg says May is a cautious figure who would not accuse Russia without evidence, Russia is not acting like a normal nation
-Andrew Neill may have good questions about Corbyn's stance but he treated Dodds poorly during that section
-Farage join fish boat protest but whips persuade Tory MP's not to take part
-Farage fears transition deal could lead to hundreds of fishermen going bust
-Sun's Steve Hawkes notes "Under the radar there is real fury among Brexit backing MPs towards No.10 and DD - feelings DD has "gone native", anger at PM for refusing to speak up publicly taking control of fishing, borders etc"
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-Iain Watson
on Jennie Formby-Eaton on
Labour left at strongest in it's history-Afua Hirsch reminds us
we engage in propaganda, not just Russian Today-Charles Grant
on Ireland issue-Jane Merrick lays into
Corbyn's attitude on spy attacks
“You, are a rebellious son who abandoned his father. You are a cruel brigand who murdered his lord. How can Heaven and Earth put up with you for long? And unless you die soon, how can you face the sight of men?”