Quality staff in covering the meetings and many, many interviews and conductors.
So, there being no further questions, the task force stands adjourned.
Members, I thank you.
Please stay for the picture.
Yes.
Yes, please.
We want to have a team picture.
we all know it.
This morning, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators holds its legislative conference, with members considering how artificial intelligence could open opportunities for marginalized communities.
Watch that live at 8:30am Eastern on C-SPAN2, C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org.
During Prime Minister's question time in the British House of Commons, Prime Minister Keir Starmer answered questions from members on immigration, the economy and cost of living, domestic violence, and protections for women and girls.
This is 30 Minutes.
Right, we now come to play with us questions.
In room.
Question number one, please, Mr. Speak up.
Order, what are these two members playing at?
That is absolutely disgraceful for the member.
We've started PMQs.
Either come in early or at least wait.
Please start reading the room.
Ian Room.
Question number one, please, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it's a pleasure to welcome His Highness, the Amir of the State of Qatar, to the UK.
I look forward to discussions this afternoon on how we're strengthening our relationship and boosting trade and investment, including the announcement today of a £1 billion investment in our new clean energy partnership.
Mr. Speaker, Sunday marked World AIDS Day, and we stand with all those that we have lost and those living with HIV today.
We will seek to end new cases of HIV in England by 2030.
Mr. Speaker, can I also note that we're joined in the gallery today by Mandy Damari, mother of Emily, a British citizen still being held hostage in Gaza?
I've met Mandy a number of times and in my view, what she's going through is nothing short of torture.
Mr. Speaker, this morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others.
In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.
Mr. Speaker, I'd like to concur with the comments the Prime Minister has just made.
North Devon District Hospital is the most remotest hospital in mainland England.
Its intensive care unit has only six beds and it's almost 50 years old and it serves a population of 165,000 people.
Can the Prime Minister assure my constituents that their hospital will receive the urgent funding that is needed under the new hospital programme so that they will not face over a two-hour drive to the nearest trauma unit?
Mr. Speaker, the new hospital programme that we inherited was emblematic of the failures of the previous government of making promises with no plan to deliver on them.
We are committed to delivery, including the North Devon Hospital.
We're reviewing the programme to place it on a sustainable footing.
The Health Secretary will set out further details of the new delivery soon.
And in the meantime, we continue to support trusts to develop their schemes.
Thank you.
Olivia Bailey.
Mr. Speaker, can I welcome the swift and decisive action this government is taking to secure our borders after the party opposite lost lost control after the party opposite lost control and, in particular, can I welcome the world first deal struck with Iraq last week to tackle smuggling?
Does the Prime Minister agree with me that international cooperation, shared intelligence and joint law enforcement is the best way to end the vile smuggling trade?
I thank my honourable friend.
She's a superb champion for her constituents and she's absolutely right.
The previous government left a broken asylum system.
We put a plan in place, the border security command backed by 150 million pounds, a hundred more NCA officers and we're introducing counter-terrorist style powers.
And my friend is right that our new international coordination, including the landmark Iraqi agreement and the hard graft, is already beginning to pay off, because 9,400 people who've no right to being returned, that's a 30% increase on the numbers of last year.
They promised to get the flights off the ground.
We've got them off the ground because the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Speaker, if I may, I would like to pay tribute to Mandy Damari and her family for the strength that they have shown and we on this side of the House, and I'm sure the whole house continue to seek the speedy release of Emily Damari and the other hostages.
Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister talks about immigration.
I think it's probably a good time to remind him that he was the one writing letters asking us not to deport foreign criminals.
He and his party voted against every single measure that we put in place to try and limit immigration.
But, Mr Speaker, the question today is what has been on the lips of all Labour MPs including, I believe, the health secretary.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister knowingly appointed a convicted prodster to be his transport secretary.
What was he thinking, Mr Speaker?
The previous transport secretary was right, when further information came forward, to resign.
What a marked contrast to behaviour in the last 14 years.
And and she talks about immigration record levels of immigration under the previous government.
Nearly a million net migrants.
And she was the cheerleader, she was the one urging on the removal of the caps for work visas.
She was thanking the previous Home Secretary for the work that was done.
She championed it, she advocated it.
Record numbers of immigration.
Mr Speaker, he's obfuscating but I'm going to keep him on the topic.
He owes the House an explanation.
He said that the transport, the former transport secretary, was only asked to resign after further information came to light.
What was that further information?
I'm not going to disclose private conversations.
Further information came to light that justice secretary resigned, as I say.
What a marked contrast.
Whilst she's obsessing with the Westminster issues, we're getting on with fixing the mess, fixing the foundations.
That £22 billion black hole, our prisons bursting and, Mr Speaker, as we found out last week, nearly a million net migration numbers because of the Tory open borders policy.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not asking about migration, I'm asking about the former Transport Secretary.
He never answers any questions.
He never answers any questions, and it looks like he didn't ask his Transport Secretary any questions either.
The truth is, he appointed a person convicted of fraud to the cabinet.
The first thing she did was bung hundreds of millions of pounds in pay rises to her trade union friends.
Wasn't this a fraud on the British people?
No, Mr. Speaker, she says she's not talking about immigration.
I'm not surprised.
And I advise her in order not to talk about the economy or immigration for another five years.
Mr. Speaker, you can try and change the topic as much as he likes, but the public are watching.
He owes them an explanation.
The country needs conviction politicians, not politicians with convictions.
Now on to an even bigger fraud, the budget.
Last week, the Prime Minister failed to repeat the Chancellor's pledge of no more borrowing and no more taxes.
It is obvious that they are coming back for more.
In his manifesto, he committed to making Britain the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
Does he stand by his own pledge?
Mr. Speaker, I gently remind her that two of her predecessors had convictions for breaking new COVID rules.
I'd also invite her to look at the OECD report of this morning, which has upgraded growth for next year and the year after, which now puts us on target to be the highest-growing major economy in Europe in the next two years.
She should welcome that.
Mr. Speaker, I saw the OECD report and what it said was that they will be coming back for more taxes.
And I think the whole House would have heard him fail to repeat his own pledge.
He can't even repeat the pledges that he made just a few weeks ago.
We are here to stop him from damaging the economy, and that is why we are that Mr. Speaker.
They are laughing the same way they all laughed during the budget when they talked about raising NI.
They have no idea what people out there are dealing with.
And that is why yesterday we voted against his damaging jobs tax.
Even former supporters, Chef Tom Kerridge, who endorsed Labour at the election, said that the budget was catastrophic.
He built a real business employing young people, unlike his cabinet, of trade union stooges, CV embellishers, and an actual fraudster.
None of them have ever run a business.
Why won't he listen to business who are saying his budget is catastrophic?
Mr. Speaker, I thought the scripted jokes were over, but we had another one about them lectures about the economy from the party opposite.
They broke the economy, mortgages through the roof, and a £22 billion black hole.
And she talks about national insurance.
She complains about the rise in national insurance week after week.
But then two weeks ago, she says that she wouldn't reverse it.
She signed trade deals that had farmers protesting in Whitehall.
Now she pretends that she's their champion.
She campaigned to remove the cap on migrant worker visas and now she pretends she's furious about the open borders policy of the last government.
Mr. Speaker, the fact is the Prime Minister has discarded his own Labour leadership promises.
He's dropped the five missions he said would define his government.
He's ditched his pledge to make Britain the fastest growing economy in the G7.
We left office with UK the fastest growing economy in the G7.
And business is saying he has damaged the economy with his budget.
Tomorrow he's going to have an emergency reset, Mr. Speaker, just five months into his premiership.
But why should anyone believe a word he says?
Mr. Speaker, the only relaunch on that side of the house is the leadership bids of her rivals.
She obviously hasn't read the OECD report this morning.
The fastest growth in the next two years of any major economy in Europe.
We're proud of that.
And they should never be allowed to forget the damage they did to our country.
They used Britain like some sort of mad scientist experiment.
Open borders, unfunded tax cuts, neglected health service.
And now, now, all the mad is still coming out.
They say they should be back in office.
They haven't listened, they haven't learned, and they certainly haven't changed.
There's only one party that's driving this country forward, and that's this Labour government.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Today, question three.
But who knows, next week I could be number one in the charts.
As the first MP this year to bring out a Christmas single, will the Prime Minister join me in thanking my musical collaborator, the hugely talented Mal Pope, and everyone involved with this year's Everyone Deserves Hamper campaign that would deliver festive food to 1,500 homes across five constituencies in South Wales.
Like Auxong says, there's a reason for the season, and everyone deserves a Christmas.
Well, I thank her for a Christmas.
There's obviously going to be some rivalry in the race for number one by Christmas.
I'm not going to be joining in that particular one.
But I do thank Mal Pope for their campaigning.
I remember joining her in the summer a few summers ago on the work involving hampers much needed by her constituents.
I know how much it means to them.
Christmas is a time to think of others.
I do pay tribute to her and all those supporting those in need.
And this government will always support the most vulnerable in our society.
Here are the Liberal Democrats, Sir Le Davy.
Thank you.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I, for one, will be downloading the song of the Honourable Lady for Nathan Swansea East.
And can I join the Prime Minister in his delight and also his support for Manny Damari and our joint hope that we will see Emily and other hosses released as soon as possible.
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has rightly spoken about the need to restore and rebuild the public's trust in British politics.
Now we believe a crucial part of that is reforming our electoral system to make it fairer and more proportional.
And so does a majority of the British public.
And this House voted yesterday in favour of a bill for electoral reform put forward by my honourable friend, the member for Richmond Park.
So will the Prime Minister find government time, make it available so we can consider this bill on electoral reform and restore the public's trust in our politics?
Can I thank him for referencing Emily because I think it is important that we all remember her and I say the awful torture that her mother is going through and that's the case for all of the other hostages.
It's hard to imagine what it must be like for anybody with friends and family who are still being held hostage after all this time.
But proportional representation is not our policy.
We won't be making time for it.
And I just gently say to him, it didn't do too badly under the system as it is.
Well I'm disappointed in that reply and hope he will reflect on Labour's own policy.
But moving on to another pressing subject Mr. Speaker, more than three million people have been stuck on NHS waiting list for more than 18 weeks.
That's probably the worst, most appalling legacy of the last Conservative government and it needs to be fixed.
But does the Prime Minister accept that we'll only get waiting lists down and keep them down if it's easier for everyone to see a GP when they need it?
So when he publishes his milestones tomorrow, we include a guarantee with a timetable so people will be able to see a GP within at least seven days or 24 hours if it's urgent.
Well he's right to draw attention to the record of last government on the NHS record waiting lists and record low confidence in the NHS.
So in addition to the economy and immigration, they better not be talking about that for the next five years either.
We will be driving this down.
We've already begun that work to make sure we get those waiting lists down.
And yes, of course that does also include making sure there's better access to GPs and other measures that need to be taken.
But that's a central driving mission of this government.
Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Given that a significant number of members in this place are, regardless of class, women of a certain age, would the Prime Minister agree with me that when a woman of a certain age or indeed any woman of any age from any background says they have experienced sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour, they should be listened to, supported and the perpetrator dealt with?
I certainly agree with that and I think everybody across the House would.
She's right because one of the greatest barriers that women face when coming forward and reporting unacceptable behaviour in the workplace is having confidence that they will be taken seriously and that requires all of us to put in place mechanisms and arrangements to make that possible.
Everybody should be treated with dignity and respect and I'm proud of the fact that the employment rights bill that we're passing will strengthen protections from sexual harassment at work.
Robin Swan.
Thank you very much Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, Friday 13th is a date associated with bad things happening.
Next Friday the European Union's general product safety regulations will apply in Northern Ireland, creating more costs and bureaucracy for English, Scottish and Welsh companies who want to do business in Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland consumers buying from them.
Many businesses have already stopped supplying Northern Ireland.
Hollage companies are unsure what is required of them.
Online sales platforms are divided on the advice that they give.
Mr. Speaker, a previous Prime Minister promised Northern Ireland businesses that if they were asked to complete additional paperwork, they should phone the Prime Minister and he would direct them to throw the form in the bin.
What direct, tangible advice can the Prime Minister give to those businesses who want to continue supplying Northern Ireland?
Well, I thank him for that question.
It is a serious issue and the Government is working closely with businesses to ensure that they are ready for the changes that he has identified.
We published more guidance, as he knows, yesterday to support them further.
We will be keeping a close eye on the issue to help businesses trade freely across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Thank you.
David Williams.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In Stoke and Trent and Kidsgrove, we are proud of our beautiful historic buildings.
However, many lay dormant and blight our proud towns.
Can the Prime Minister please outline what steps this government is taking to bring historic buildings back into use?
And will he make time to visit my constituency to see for himself our untapped potential?
I thank him for raising this issue and certainly consider his kind invitation.
Mr. Speaker, we will invest in heritage buildings, restoring pride, ensuring they serve the needs of local communities.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded Stoke on Trent £250,000 to help preserve the city's heritage.
Historic England is also funding emergency repairs at the iconic Wedgwood Institute and supporting Reform Heritage, whose office I think is based in my honourable friend's constituency to employ staff dedicated to delivering heritage projects.
Pete Wishle.
Speaker, today is the Scottish budget and inside it you will find provisions to reinstate the winter fuel payment to all of Scottish pensioners, something that he of course famously took away from nearly all of the UK pensioners supported by Scottish Labour members of parliament.
But apparently Scottish Labour are now in favour of winter fuel payments.
So what's his advice to Labour MSPs?
Is it to vote for the budget to ensure that Scottish pensioners get that single fuel payment or is it to stick with his view and vote that budget down?
My advice to my team is to ensure the SNP are absolutely clear.
We have given the biggest settlement to Scotland this year under our budget.
They now have the powers, they have the resources, they've got no more excuses for the failure to deliver.
By Bethel.
Mr. Speaker, a year ago today, this House defeated the then government over the contaminated blood scandal compensation scheme.
This government's £11.8 billion set aside for that compensation scheme is welcome.
But as victims die every week, there is concern about the pace of payments and the fact that rules are being changed behind closed doors in Whitehall without explanation.
Contradicting some of the recommendations of Sir Brian Langstaff.
So does my Right Honourable Friend agree with me that next week's meeting scheduled with the campaign groups representing the victims must represent the start of those infected and affected being involved in the process that they fought so hard for for so long and too many died and failed to see?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to acting on the findings of the infected blood inquiry and ensuring swift resolution and compensating in full.
And that's why we announced £11.8 billion to compensate those who waited far too long for justice.
I'll happily make sure that he gets a meeting with the Paymaster General to discuss the issues he's raised.
Joe Coat Adam.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Everyday pensioners in my Leicester South constituency are emailing me with one word and that word is frightened.
Susan, who has pulmonary fibrosis, wrote, During winter I rarely go out as it is too cold for my lungs.
I need to keep warm and I need to keep my heating on.
The winter fuel payment was really really helpful.
She writes, I want MPs to know that not all pensioners are millionaires or receive gifts from millionaires, nor do we all get the higher rate of pension.
Susan is frightened she won't be able to keep her house warm this winter, and she is not alone.
Does the Prime Minister realise how frightening it is for the 8,100 pensioners in my constituency who have lost their winter fuel payment hope?
As the winter month starts to bite, will the Prime Minister come to Leicester to explain to Susan why he thinks this policy is not frightening?
Mr. Speaker, as he knows, the number one job of this government was to get our finances back in order after the mess that the last government made, including leaving a £22 billion black hole.
We had to take tough choices.
They say they want the benefits, but they can't say how they're going to pay for them.
We do want to make sure that the most vulnerable pensioners do get the pension credit that they're entitled to.
We're driving that up.
But because we're stabilising the economy, we can commit to the triple lot.
That's a £460 uplift in the pension next year, so every pensioner will be better off under a Labour government.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Middlewich Eastern Bypass will support the delivery of nearly 2,000 new homes, 6,500 jobs, and £1.5 million square feet of employment land.
The previous government, having first promised to fund it, dragged their feet, putting jobs and investment at risk.
Mr. Speaker, we're approaching the season of goodwill.
So can the Prime Minister give my constituents an early Christmas present and offer some certainty over this vital infrastructure project?
Mr. Speaker, we are committed to supporting drivers across the country, including by freezing fuel duty and investing £1.6 billion to maintain our roads.
That's £500 million more than the previous year.
I do know his constituents have waited years for certainty on this scheme.
The project is currently going through an assessment and government process, and I'll make sure that he gets a meeting with the Roads Minister to discuss that.
The major GP practice groups in my Newton Abbott constituency have written to me detailing their precarious finances.
Planning for the year ahead, they're considering their options, including redundancies, handing back their contracts or bankruptcy.
They've stopped recruitment of GPs, resulting in fewer patient appointments.
The Health Secretary has promised an increased funding allocation but has yet to say when we will know how much this will be.
Will the Prime Minister release this funding information and meet with me and the GPs to hear their precious first hand?
Mr. Speaker, he's right to raise this.
The Darcy report that the Commission made clear that the NHS was broken by the previous government.
And that's why we provided £22 billion of additional funding in the budget this year to start the work fixing our NHS.
We do obviously value the vital work of GPs and every year, as he knows, we consult with the sector about the services that they provide and the money they're entitled to in return.
We'll send that out.
We will set that out in the usual way.
Holly Gazzard was murdered by her boyfriend outside her workplace in Gloucester 10 years ago.
Since then, her family have established the Holly Gazzard Trust, which educates young people on domestic abuse and stalking and keeps women safe with its Holyguard app.
Will the Prime Minister join me in paying tribute to Holly's family and the work of the Holy Gazzard Trust?
And will he update the House on the steps that this government is taking to tackle violence against women and girls?
Mr. Speaker, a decade on, the thoughts I'm sure of the whole House remain with Holly's family and friends.
I do join him in commending the vital work of the Holly Gazzard Trust.
In relation to the steps we're taking, we've got a mission to halve the levels of violence against women and girls within a decade.
That is really tough to do.
Nobody has ever committed to that before.
I invite everybody across the House to join us in that.
And that will include, amongst the steps we're taking, placing domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms to make sure they're picked up early, launching a pilot of new domestic abuse protection orders, developing a national framework to track and target high-palm offenders, and strengthening stalking prevention orders.
We will take other measures to make good on this commitment.
A Washburn dies every 13 minutes.
That's two since the Prime Minister took to the dispatch box today.
That's 111 every day and nearly 17,000 since he took office.
So, can I ask the Prime Minister how many more Washby women have to die before the government takes action to give them the financial redress and the justice that they are due?
Mr. Speaker, we are moving at pace on all relevant issues.
We've passed the budget to provide the baseline for what we need and we'll continue to do so.
Local councils in my constituency of Early and Woodley are facing significant financial pressures from SEND provision.
Woking Borough, for example, has twice the level of SEND instance than the national average, yet historically, the level of funding has not met the level of needs, and this has left families and children waiting too long for help.
The previous government's safety balance programme was only a sticking plaster, so I welcome this government's announcement today of additional send funding in mainstream schools.
What more can this government do to make send funding sustainable?
I'm grateful to her for raising this, I think, the fifth or sixth time send has been raised at PMQs.
We did inherit a system neglected to the point of crisis by the last government, and so we'll deliver the change that's desperately needed.
That means increased funding to the core schools budget by £2.3 billion, includes almost a billion more on higher needs budgets.
And today, we're investing an announcing investment of £740 million in funding to create SEN units in mainstream schools which deliver specialist support.
I'm very pleased to be able to take that forward.
Mr. Speaker, members across this House are deeply concerned that the Post Office are considering closing more than 100 branches across our communities.
More than 3,000 people have signed a petition opposing the closure of Bexhall Post Office.
Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the government must ensure we protect vital post office services for all of our constituents?
Can I thank him for his question?
And can I also recognise the campaigning of many, including himself, for local services that their constituents rely on?
The Post Office is required to maintain a network of 11,500 branches and ensure that 99% of the UK population lives within three miles of a post office.
Decisions, obviously, about individual branches are for the Post Office to take, following consultation with local communities.
But I'm happy to make sure he gets a meeting with the relevant minister to discuss his particular case.
In my constituency of Darlington, it's full steam ahead to 2025 when our towns celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the railways with a nine-month festival.
We're proud of our industrial contribution, but many in my area have concerns about the future of our rail industry.
What assurances can the PM offer that he will get our railways back on track?
Mr. Speaker, we are delivering on our commitment to bring railways back under public ownership, putting passengers first.
Today we've announced that South Western Railway Services will be the first to transfer into public ownership next year.
So we can turn the page on decades of delay, fragmentation and failure.
Kirsty Blackman.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Veteran Anne Puckeridge is also in the gallery, and can I urge the Prime Minister to meet her to talk about her frozen pension?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Daily Record reported that Scottish Labour MPs are very upset.
Apparently this upset is caused by their Scottish leaders' diktat that they now have to support the very winter fuel payment that they voted against in this place.
As the Prime Minister comforts his upset MPs, will he remind him that the only people with the right to be upset are the 900,000 Scottish pensioners who were left in the cold by Labour's cuts?
I work very closely with Scottish Labour in a harmonious way.
We ran a fantastic campaign earlier this year, which is why she's sitting up there and not down here.
Leon Colman!
Can I echo the words across the House in relation to Mandy Lamari, who I also met with this week and is from Beckenham?
Yesterday marked International Day of Persons with Disabilities and I'm proud to be one of the disabled MPs in this House.
As a sixth former, I became one of the youngest people in Britain to have a hip replacement and I relied on a blue badge.
Data released yesterday shows blue badge theft has more than quadrupled in the past 10 years.
Will the Prime Minister back my campaign to tackle blue badge thefts and ensure millions of disabled people can work, socialise and live an independent life?
Can I thank him for being a powerful voice for some of the most vulnerable in our society?
Look, theft of a blue badge is appalling.
Depriving people of their independence and ability to travel with confidence has a real human impact every single time.
And that's why we're working closely with local authorities to help them tackle fraud and misuse.
I'll make sure he has a meeting with the relevant minister.
Damn and what more can be done.
Ms. Stafford.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Following on from the question from the member for Aberdeen North, in the gallery today is Anne Puckeridge, who is a World War II veteran and an intense campaigner.
She's flown over 5,000 miles from Canada to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the frozen pensions, a policy denying her and half a million Brits who live abroad a frozen pension.
I'm sure Anne won't mind me saying that she will be 100 years old in a couple of days' time.
Would the Prime Minister reconsider his decision, give Anne the best birthday present ever and meet with her to discuss this issue?
Well I'm grateful to him for raising this issue.
I think he will well know and understand that our position is in fact a continuation of the position under the last government.
Lynch Baker.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Does the Prime Minister share my concern at a report by Audit Scotland finding the Scottish Government has no clear plan for the NHS in Scotland?
As a Scottish Labour MP I'm delighted this government is providing £4.9 billion actually for public services in Scotland.
Isn't it time for the SNP ministers to get a grip and do better for patients in my constituency who are facing some of the longest waiting times for surgery in Scotland?
Well I'm grateful to him for raising this because waiting lists in Scotland are appalling and that's why we make the argument.
They now have the money, they've got the resources, no more excuses for poor delivery.
That completes Prime Minister's questions.
Today, a look at the future of U.S.-China relations under the incoming Trump administration with Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes and others.
It's co-hosted by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Live coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2.
C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org.
American History TV, Saturdays on C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
This weekend at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, more than 80 years after his death, the recently identified remains of Mess Attendant Third Class David Walker of Virginia were buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
The 19-year-old African-American sailor was killed on the USS California during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
And at 8 p.m. Eastern on Lectures and History, the first of a two-part lecture by University of Maryland history professor Michael Ross on the 1893 trial of Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe.
The murders and trial received widespread publicity at the time, and Lizzie Borden became a lasting figure in American popular culture.