Duncan Smith also defended the principle of Universal Credit, arguing that there are ‘tens of thousands of people who find this a better system’. He was also cool on Theresa May’s backstop proposals which could see the UK stay in the EU customs union saying ‘people didn’t vote to half-leave, they voted to leave’, and added that the key question was ‘when does it end’? He told Ridge that he would vote against any deal that would keep the UK in the customs union longer than the agreed two year implementation period. Shami Chakrabarti – Gagging clauses for charities are ‘completely unacceptable’ Ridge also spoke to the Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti, who made clear her dissatisfaction with the government’s use of so-called ‘gagging clauses’. These clauses compel charities and other organisations working with the Department for Work and Pensions to ‘pay the utmost regard to the standing and reputation’ of Secretary of State Esther McVey:IDS: The government has a really really transformative policy on its hands… If you [underfund it] you lose the great benefit of it and then end up starving people of cash… For the last two and a half years I’ve proposed constantly that we put the money that was taken out – that was nearly £5 billion – back in. The government has actually been quite good, they’ve put £2 billion back in… SR: And you want that addressed in the budget do you? IDS: I think that’s feasible… I think this government is listening, I think the Chancellor is listening and I’m asking him to do that. If we do that and get the money back to where it should be the reality is nobody should lose at all.
'It's unacceptable and possibly unenforceable in our courts' – Baroness Chakrabarti criticises @EstherMcVey1 and her department for 'gagging clauses' which she says prevents charities criticising the government. #RidgeOnSunday
— Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) October 14, 2018
For more politics go to https://t.co/pQo2gDD2lK pic.twitter.com/kEAGifLswE
Chakrabarti attacked Universal Credit, saying ‘The theoretic idea that you could have one simple benefit.. always appealed to me’, but she argued that the government was using the policy ‘to cut people’s benefits, to penalise people for having too many children… the disabled and other vulnerable people’. She also stated that ‘Saudi Arabia should be in the dock when it comes to human rights abuses’ and called for the government to be ‘much more robust’ in calling out the Kingdom after the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was allegedly murdered in an embassy in Turkey earlier this week. Matthew Hancock – Membership of the customs union will be ‘temporary’ Andrew Marr interviewed the Health Secretary Matt Hancock about Theresa May’s Brexit negotiating strategy. This morning David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, wrote in the Sunday Times urging cabinet ministers to exert their collective authority and rebel against the Prime Minister’s approach, which Brexiteers fear may leave the UK within the EU’s customs union indefinitely. Hancock’s response suggested that this may indeed be the case:SC: As Shadow Attorney [General] and with a Human Rights and Free Speech background, you can imagine that I was pretty shocked to learn that contracts between the DWP… and charities, include clauses that preclude the charities from criticising the Secretary of State, the department or Universal Credit. That is completely unacceptable and I think quite possibly unenforceable in our courts.
Health & Social Care Secretary @MattHancock “hopes” for time limit on UK-EU Customs Union #marr pic.twitter.com/ZuF5q2a9uk
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 14, 2018
Hancock dismissed the idea that May would need to reshuffle her Cabinet to deal with impending resignations next week and rebutted the suggestion that there could be a general election before Christmas, telling Marr ‘I can see absolutely no circumstances in which that will happen’. He defended Universal Credit, claiming to have had ‘no letters on it at all’ in his constituency mailbag. In his own department, Hancock confirmed that a migrant scheme for care workers was ‘under discussion’. Emily Thornberry – Labour’s Brexit tests ‘are not silly’ The Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry has defended Labour’s six Brexit tests against the charge that they are ‘silly’. The tests include the ambition that, after Brexit, the UK should still enjoy ‘the exact same benefits’ as it would as a member of the single market and customs union. Andrew Marr tested the water:AM: When MPs get to vote…[will they] see a date by which time we will have left the customs union? MH: The proposal is that it will be temporary and time-limited. AM: Temporary can go on forever… Will there be a date? MH: There are different ways to ensure that something is time limited… For instance, you can set conditions under which – at the point at which – the arrangements come to an end.
Shadow Foreign Secretary @EmilyThornberry defends Labour’s six Brexit tests #marr pic.twitter.com/OFRE6HnGZX
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 14, 2018
On the case of whether Saudi Arabia murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Thornberry stated that ‘I think the balance of evidence is that they did’. However, she expressed disappointment in Jeremy Hunt’s handling of the situation, saying that he was ‘being outdone by Donald Trump’. Sarah Vine – Male politicians ‘should stop waving their willies around’ And finally, the journalist Sarah Vine has defended Theresa May against an onslaught from all sides and has had some advice for the rest of the Cabinet, which may or may not include Vine’s husband Michael Gove:AM: You mentioned your tests a couple of times but they’re a bit silly, aren’t they? EM: No they’re not! They’re absolutely not. And you know what? They are the very words that the Tory ministers said they would achieve… AM: If you say we have to have the ‘exact same benefits’ then that means that we have to stay inside the single market and the customs union… So it does seem to a lot of people that these are tests designed for the government to fail. EM: Those tests are designed for the British public. They are tests which will look after our country. And frankly that’s what the Labour party has been doing.
SV: Can I just say in [Theresa May’s] defence, she has had to deal with the most impossible situation ever in the history of politics… but she is calm, she is tenacious, she does plough on. I think it would be quite nice if all the men stopped shouting and screaming and waving their willies around and perhaps just gave her a hand occasionally.
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