Political Correspondent @SkyNews | Formerly @bbcsoutheast @bbcnews | Sounds like ‘ACAS’ | [email protected]
London, England
Joined November 2010
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Amanda Akass retweeted
.@SophyRidgeSky asks both @libdemdaisy and @RobertJenrick about the alleged altercation that happened between a Lib Dem member and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage ⬇️
Amanda Akass retweeted
🗣️ "You're asking us to be ready, but why aren't you ready?"
@SophyRidgeSky questions the chancellor on how the government will get to 3% of GDP for defence, and presses him on whether they are actually prepared.
Full interview: trib.al/W0OJ6Cg
The Chancellor is likely to announce that medicines donated by pharmaceutical giants to compassionate and early access schemes will be emempt from VAT in tomorrow's budget, Sky News understands - exclusive by @theoscarbentley news.sky.com/story/politics-…
Amanda Akass retweeted
Baroness Carmen Smith has shared her reaction to vote on House of Lords reform with Sky's @AmandaAkass.
Read more: trib.al/I9Ecsag
'The Lords most people know are the ones in Bridgerton': watch highlights from today’s debate about establishing a consultation on abolishing & replacing the Lords here, as well as my interview with Baroness Smith after her bill passed to committee stage
news.sky.com/share/13602687
With many thanks to the legendary @HWoodwardSky - our coverage today was her vision xx
Meet Baroness Carmen Smith, who’s trying to take down the Lords from within. She wants to replace the Lords with a new elected chamber, something Keir Starmer once promised.
Debate on her bill begins at 10am today.
@amandaakass @SkyNews
Amanda Akass retweeted
BREAKING: Bill pushing government to replace House of Lords moved on to next stage by peers.
Live from Westminster, political correspondent @amandaakass explains what the next stages are.
trib.al/j8kTslI
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube
Baroness Carmen Smith's bill calling for a consultation on replacing the House of Lords with a new more representative second chamber has passed - it will now go to commitee stage.
The youngest member of the House of Lords is on a mission to destroy it from within.
Baroness Carmen Smith is using a private members bill to try to force the government to consult people on replacing the 700-year-old House of Lords with an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the nations and regions. Sky's @amandaakass reports.
Baroness Twycross, speaking for the govt, says while they have "significant sympathy" with Baroness Smith's proposal as per the manifesto - they do not support it as it "prematurely imposes the duty to consult" within 12 weeks & they have been taking a staged approach to reform
Interesting that of the speakers so far the majority have been supportive of Baroness Smith's bill calling for a consultation into abolishing and replacing the existing House of Lords @SkyNews
Exclusive polling by YouGov for @SkyNews found 56% of the public support having a a wholly or mostly elected House of Lords - compared to just 17% who prefer the idea of a wholly or mostly appointed one. Only 7% support the current wholly appointed set up.
Lord David Blunkett says he disagrees with the concept of abolishing the Lords but agrees reform is needed. He says the Commons is already representative of the nations and regions & if members were directly elected via a list system they would still be appointed by the parties
Lord Jackson (Tory) says "the public doesn't really care about this issue" - an elected chamber will be "a house of apparatchiks in permanent war with the Commons" in gridlock and constitutional impasse. He says we wouldn't design it this way but it works.
Baroness Carmen Smith of Plaid Cymru tells the Lords she is asking the government to do something they've already promised in the last Labour manifesto - to consult on abolishing the existing Lords and replace it with a new chamber of the Nations and Regions @SkyNews
As someone who grew up as an unpaid carer for her father on a council estate Baroness Smith says Westminster felt very remote. She says the fact so many peers are appointed by former PMs or that 26 places are reserved for Anglican bishops does not feel like modern accountability.