Calais children: Children without UK links among 70 new arrivals. Image copyright PA The first group of unaccompanied children without family ties to the UK have arrived in Britain from the migrant camp in Calais. They came under the "Dubs amendment" rules which allow particularly vulnerable children - such as girls and those under 13 - refuge in the UK. They were among 70 boys and girls to arrive from the "Jungle" camp, which is due to be demolished on Monday. It followed the first wave of 39 boys on Monday - who all had UK relatives. Their arrival prompted controversy in several newspapers and criticism from Monmouth MP David Davies, with suggestions that some of them looked older than 18. Mr Davies suggested young migrants should have their teeth tested to verify their ages. French police clashes at Calais 'Jungle' Scaffolding and sheets have since been erected around the entrance to the building in Croydon, south London, where today's arrivals were taken, to shield them from the media.
Image copyright AP. David Cameron resigns as MP, triggering by-election in his Witney constituency. Boundary review: Corbyn and Osborne's seats face axe. Image copyright Getty Images Several prominent MPs are facing reselection battles ahead of the next general election under new constituency boundary proposals in England and Wales. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ex-chancellor George Osborne are among those whose seats would be abolished. Most constituencies are affected by the bid to cut the number of MPs in the Commons and create equal-sized seats.
Labour - expected to be hit hardest - said the proposals were "undemocratic". But the government said they would "ensure an equal say for each voter". The number of MPs would be cut from 533 to 501 in England, from 40 to 29 in Wales, from 59 to 53 in Scotland and from 18 to 17 in Northern Ireland. The newly-published draft Boundary Commission proposals for England and Wales follow those for Northern Ireland, which were published on 6 September, with plans for Scotland expected on 20 October. Among the other proposals: Image copyright AP Image copyright Reuters 'Left out' 2015 election results map. Week ahead. Image copyright Getty Images The torch of government has been passed to a new generation of ministers and all kinds of policies are changing. Next week's political highlight looks likely to be the unveiling of the government's new policy on grammar schools (see Monday) but there will be plenty of other areas in which MPs will want to quiz the new Cabinet team on which previous policies remain operative.
And there will be vast (self) interest in the Commons on the unfolding of one particular previous policy - that of reducing the size of the Commons. When the Boundary Commission unveils its proposals for the re-drawing of the map of parliamentary seats on Tuesday, it will become clear which MPs will have to fight for their political survival, and with whom. Previously amicable neighbours may suddenly become rivals as their seats are merged or abolished, with an unpredictable impact on party discipline across the House. Here's my rundown of the week ahead. Monday Tuesday Image copyright PA. Politicians may leave the Houses of Parliament for six years. Rbyn: Labour will seek to block grammar school changes.
Houses of Parliament should be sold off, Labour MP says. Image copyright AP The Palace of Westminster should be turned into a museum and parliament moved to Manchester, an MP has said. Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton, made the suggestion after a parliamentary committee said urgent repairs were needed at the palace. It recommended MPs and civil servants move out for six years while the £4bn renovations are completed. The Labour MP said if civil servants did not want to move their lives north that was "up to them". Privatise the palace Spending £4bn "on an old building in London" was "absurd", said Mr Stringer, who suggested a permanent relocation. The Labour MP told the BBC he would favour selling the palace and turning it into a "museum of democracy". He said: "It is crazy that the taxpayer should be asked to spend £4bn renovating Westminster when it should be seen as an opportunity to use the space for commercial purposes. 'Over-centralised' "It would create jobs and opportunities in a sector that everyone agrees is over-centralised.
Free votes in the House of Commons since 1997. The majority of Government business in Parliament is whiped. The primary role of the Whips Office is to get the Government’s business through Parliament and to secure the Government’s majority in votes on its legislative and policy programme. A free vote in Parliament is one in which MPs or members of the Lords are not put under any pressure as to which way to vote by their Party's Whips.
There is no definitive list of free votes, and they are often held without any formal announcement. This list attempts to identify divisions in the House of Commons where the main parties have allowed their MPs a free vote. Any comments or corrections to the lists would be gratefully received and should be sent to: Parliamentary Information Lists Editor, Parliament & Constitution Centre, House of Commons, London SW1A OAA. Limiting Lords powers 'calls its future into question' The future of the House of Lords would be called into question if ministers press ahead with plans to curtail its powers, the Lord Speaker has said. Baroness D'Souza said the Lords "should be free to scrutinise, to question and to hold the government to account". A review of the Lords was launched after it blocked government plans to cut tax credits in October.
Lord Strathclyde, who led the review, said there was no suggestion the Lords' powers would "fundamentally change". During the last parliamentary session, the Lords inflicted 60 defeats on the government, including several changes to the housing bill last week. In return ministers have been clear they are looking into ways of making that harder. 'Free to scrutinise' The review recommended taking away the absolute veto the House of Lords has over laws, called statutory instruments, and instead creating a new procedure allowing them to send secondary legislation back to the House of Commons to "think again". 'Blocking tactics'
The role of the Whips in Parliament. Fictional accounts of the work of a parliamentary whip can portray a mysterious world of intrigue, but what really goes on behind the scenes? In reality, whips are MPs or Lords appointed to help organise each party's contribution to parliamentary business. This ranges from ensuring that MPs vote (and vote according to party wishes), to acting as tellers when votes take place, and arranging parliamentary business. Anne Milton MP Anne Milton was elected MP for Guildford in 2005, and re-elected in 2010.
She has served as a Government Whip since 2012. Find out more about Anne Milton MP Open Lectures are free events aimed at academics and students from universities in the UK but are open to others to attend as well. The role of the Whips in Parliament: Open Lecture transcript (Check against delivery) The Whips - the victims of much rumour, myth and speculation but about whom little is still known. History Before moving much further along - a word about the terminology. Today. A Point of View: Who should sit in the House of Lords? Image copyright Getty Images Many people think that the House of Lords needs change but nobody can agree how or even why. Tom Shakespeare comes up with his own proposals for Britain's second chamber. When I was a schoolboy, I memorized the Gettysburg Address for a declamations competition. Thirty years later, I have forgotten most of it, except for Abraham Lincoln's memorable phrase, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
The House of Lords reform debate has been going on for more than a century. So far, so familiar. Their Lordships' house is not just overcrowded, it's also very unrepresentative of the diversity of our country. Perhaps partly because they have been half-reformed, to remove most of the hereditaries - and thus have a tad greater legitimacy - the Lords have been flexing their muscles recently.
The principles behind reform should be clear by now. Tata Steel: No 10 rejects Labour call to recall Parliament. Conservatives, Europe and the risks of a disunited party. I have come full circle. In the early 1990s, I arrived at Westminster as a young reporter, there to help chronicle the decline of the Conservative Party for The Times. The then prime minister, John Major, had a small parliamentary majority and large parliamentary problem: a party divided to the core over Britain's membership of the European Union, divisions that were under laid by deep-set personal feuds, all the while potential successors for the leadership circled and plotted and agitated against Downing Street.
One key player in all this was a young Eurosceptic MP called Iain Duncan Smith. More than two decades on, as I prepare to leave Westminster, I am overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia as the years fall away. There are, of course, limits to the parallel. There is no single piece of legislation like the European Communities (Amendment) Bill - the so-called Maastricht Bill - around which battle can be fought. Tory purpose So enter Mr Duncan Smith and his dramatic resignation.
Sunday trading defeat for government as MPs reject changes. Plans to overhaul Sunday trading laws in England and Wales have been dropped after they were rejected by MPs. The Commons opposed proposals to allow councils to extend opening hours by 317 votes to 286, as 27 Tories rebelled. Ministers had sought to limit the rebellion by promising to trial the changes in 12 areas but said afterwards they would respect MPs' views.
Critics of the plans said they would "chip away" at Sunday's special status and put undue pressure on workers. It is the Conservative government's second defeat in the House of Commons since it was elected last May. 'Tawdry' The government had hoped to relax existing restrictions on Sunday trading, which limit large shops to opening for a maximum of six hours, by devolving responsibility to local councils. List of Conservative MPs who voted against the government Image copyright Reuters Before the vote, ministers indicated they would seek to amend their proposals in the House of Lords if MPs approved them in principle. 'Dead hand'
How does David Cameron avoid Commons defeats? Image copyright AFP Where are the rebellions? Where are the government defeats in the Commons? When David Cameron formed the first Conservative government since the demise of John Major's in 1997, most observers (me included) thought his narrow Commons majority would spell trouble, not least because a significant number of Tory backbenchers had acquired quite a taste for rebellion during the coalition years. But so far, barring one admittedly stinging lost amendment on EU referendum purdah rules, there has been no repetition of the prime minister's abject and almost unprecedented humiliation in the 2013 vote on military intervention in Syria.
Even the increasingly snippy Euro-feuding in Tory ranks has not endangered that majority. There are all kinds of reasons why. Image copyright PA But they are more than outweighed by the likely support of the SNP. Cautious government It's an interesting question how far the dearth of such issues is down to conscious choice. 'Best Chief Whip' Who needs the House of Lords? Meet the peers rattling the Commons | Politics. It is late October in the House of Lords and the chamber is full. The peers squeeze on to benches, or crowd four deep around the throne.
The government has threatened to suspend the Lords, which is about to debate the abolition of tax credits. It is not the first time this House, which was last suspended by Oliver Cromwell, has faced an existential threat. You could say it is part of its remit. The chamber was designed by Augustus Pugin who, shortly afterwards, went mad. It is Hammer Horror red. The Lord Speaker is on her woolsack, with shoes dangling; the clerks are at their desk, wearing wigs and holding iPads; the bishops are on their bench, which is the only one with arms.
No one has to attend the Lords, and no one is paid a salary for doing so (for those who turn up, there is an allowance of £300 a day, expenses not included). The leader of the House rises. This debate, then, is about whether the Lords have the authority to overrule the Commons. Is there anger towards the Commons? House of Lords votes to keep income-related child poverty measures | Society. The House of Lords has voted to keep targets aimed at reducing child poverty, forcing the government to reconsider its plan to abolish them. The bishop of Durham, supported by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, led the effort to retain the targets, which measure material poverty, and were set to be scrapped under the welfare reform and work bill. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, announced the proposals in July, prompting dismay among child poverty charities.
He said the government would scrap its measurement of child poverty and the aim to eradicate it by 2020, while replacing it with a new duty to report levels of educational attainment, worklessness and addiction. Under his plans, the old measurement, based on the percentage of households with below-average income, would continue to be published as a government statistic but would no longer be seen as a target. “The Lords is on the side of the experts and the public here. Who's who: Labour shadow cabinet in full. Here is a full list of Labour's shadow cabinet, following party leader Jeremy Corbyn's reshuffle. Leader of the Opposition - Jeremy Corbyn The veteran Labour MP for Islington North was elected party leader with nearly 60% of the vote in the wake of the party's 2015 election defeat.
A left-winger first elected to Parliament in 1983, Mr Corbyn championed a range of causes such as unilateral nuclear disarmament and opposition to military intervention abroad that, during the 1990s and noughties, left him on the fringes of the party. But his anti-austerity message and the support of new members propelled him to a shock victory. Deputy leader, party chair and shadow Cabinet Office minister - Tom Watson Image copyright Getty Images A former trade union official who once shared a flat with Unite leader Len McCluskey, Mr Watson entered Parliament in 2001 as MP for West Bromwich. Shadow first secretary of state, shadow business, innovation and skills secretary - Angela Eagle Image copyright PA. The Guardian view on David Cameron and the House of Lords: more peers and fewer MPs equals a broken system | Editorial | Opinion. Speculation that Downing Street plans to make up to 40 new life peers in July after the EU referendum, most of them Conservatives, should be taken seriously.
David Cameron has the means (the prime ministerial patronage system), the motive (stopping the government defeats in the Lords), and the opportunity (he may not be prime minister by summer 2017) to do this. He also has past form on stuffing the Lords. All this makes the stories this week depressingly credible. The move should be stopped in its tracks by the body that has the power and responsibility to do so: the House of Commons. The case against more peerages could start and end with the argument that it is morally wrong for the head of government to appoint the legislature. But there is more to object to. Mr Cameron has become a serial stuffer. There are, though, two more fundamental objections. The second overriding objection is to an almost 18th-century prime ministerial patronage system that would not have disgraced Walpole. Private Members' Bills: 'Awkward squad' MPs strike again. Tax credits: Lords vote to delay controversial cuts - BBC News. Tax credits vote: PM accuses Lords of breaking constitutional convention | Money.
House of Lords: 100 years of strife - BBC News. EU referendum: Tory MPs plot revolt in vote on 'purdah' rules - BBC News. Queen's Speech 2015: Bill-by-bill - BBC News. The tragedy of the Commons: MPs are too busy to do their jobs | Juliette Jowit. Queen's speech 2015: a bill-by-bill guide to the next parliament | Politics. Who would be a Member of Parliament? - BBC News. Vellum use for Parliamentary records and bills - BBC News.
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