Debates between Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury and Lord Davies of Brixton during the 2019-2024 Parliament

Thu 23rd May 2024
Media Bill
Lords Chamber

Report stage & 3rd reading

Media Bill

Debate between Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury and Lord Davies of Brixton
Report stage & 3rd reading
Thursday 23rd May 2024

(5 months, 2 weeks ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Media Act 2024 View all Media Act 2024 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 89-I Marshalled list for Report - (23 May 2024)
Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Portrait Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)
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We on these Benches are in favour of these amendments and think we should proceed now.

Lord Davies of Brixton Portrait Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)
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I would like to add something to the constitutional points which were made by my noble friend Lord Lipsey. The appropriateness of dealing with this issue in wash-up is clearly in contention. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, said yesterday that the abolition of Section 40 is a clear commitment of the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto. I am afraid it is not clear: the sentence starts by saying that but it then sets conditions. It provides additional text that confuses the issue, and raises issues which were dealt with in yesterday’s debate. I have read yesterday’s debate and clearly questions have been raised about the accuracy of the information in that particular quote from the manifesto—I see the Minister disagrees. Claiming that it is clear is incorrect.

The second issue arises from the Salisbury convention about manifesto commitments. It is quite clear that this cannot be an essential commitment because the Government have had more than four years to deal with the matter, and they failed to do so. Bringing it up in the wash-up period is an insult to this House and an exploitation of the arrangements which have been made.