Queen’s Speech

Baroness Smith of Basildon Excerpts

Wednesday 18th May 2016 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Smith of Basildon]

That this debate be adjourned until tomorrow.

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My Lords, in moving that the debate be adjourned until tomorrow, it is not, I hope, because of anything that I have said already. Before I reflect on those two excellent speeches, I think that it is appropriate in the year of Her Majesty’s 90th birthday, and given that she is the longest-serving monarch in our history, to recognise that she has delivered more than 60 Speeches to Parliament since 1952. If in all those years she has ever sensed any repetition or contradiction, she has never let it show.

It is my pleasure warmly to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord King of Bridgwater, and the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, on their excellent and entertaining contributions. I confess that, as they spoke, I had that uncomfortable feeling that one has when hearing first-rate speeches and when one’s inner voice shouts, “Now follow that”.

Today’s proposer and seconder of the Motion for an humble Address have followed the tradition of such speeches in a way that they, their colleagues and this House can be proud of. The noble Lord, Lord King, is well known for his distinguished and impressive political career in the other place before joining your Lordships’ House in 2001. Having served as an officer in the Army, he was elected to Parliament at a by-election in 1970 and has served as Secretary of State variously for Defence, for Northern Ireland, for Employment, for Transport and for the Environment. Despite such demanding positions, one biographical note reflected:

“King never had a strong public profile compared to other members of the Cabinet”.

But the explanation for that does him great credit, because it reasons that he did not,

“draw attention to himself by elementary errors or public gaffes”.

That reputation for competence and attention to detail have followed him into your Lordships’ House.

The noble Lord may not recall the first time that we met. Indeed, it was not until I was moving house recently and sorting out boxes of political papers that I was reminded of a Conservative Party conference in the 1980s—I was there for work, not pleasure, I hasten to add—when I found the distinctive blue diary for that year, signed by the noble Lord, Lord King. I confess that he was so nice to me that I did not have the heart to tell him that I was a member of the Labour Party.

Perhaps I may say also how much we appreciated the noble Lord’s generous comments about the new London mayor, Sadiq Khan. We are very proud of Sadiq as Mayor of London and are grateful for the noble Lord’s comments.

The noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, is a newcomer to your Lordships’ House, having joined us in 2013 following a distinguished six years as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. Clearly, her party’s recent successes in Scotland have their roots in her time as leader. I commend the approach to opposition that she took when she wrote:

“Opposition is not about talking a good game, it is about taking the attack to government, challenging, calling to account, exposing flaws and weakness”.

Although fiercely loyal to her party, she is also prepared to extend the hand of friendship across the political divide. I love the story that, after a particularly bruising political meeting, she was happy to provide a lift home to Douglas Alexander, the Labour Minister who was speaking. They are clearly perfect qualities and skills for your Lordships’ House. The noble Baroness is also known for her sharp-edged, self-deprecating wit, of which we had a sense today. Now that she has stood down from the Scottish Parliament, we look forward to many more contributions from her.

Our proposer and seconder today would have seen the Queen’s Speech in advance and sworn to secrecy. Those who have served as Ministers will know that it is a closely guarded secret, and information is provided only on a need-to-know basis. On the night before the State Opening, Ministers and a few special guests are invited to Downing Street, where in the delightful surroundings of the Pillared State Drawing Room, they can hear the Prime Minister brief them on the content, again in secret, and no one must breathe a word. On the last occasion—so far—that I joined other Ministers at this event, I was surprised that a former Conservative MP had joined us for the evening. Being very curious, and knowing him reasonably well, I asked what he was doing there. “Sarah invited me”, he said, referring to the Prime Minister’s wife. “Well, it’s lovely to see you,” I said. “It’s great to have you here”. As the evening wore on, a number of my colleagues, having seen me speaking to him, asked me why he was there. I gave them my best knowing look, as if I was in on it, and said, “Well, Sarah’s invited him”. So we all had a very pleasant evening and heard all about the Queen’s Speech and he happily chatted and mingled—and, I have to say, many assumed that he might have a surprise announcement to make. As the evening drew to a close, we spoke again. He said that it had been a great evening but then added, “But I really don’t know why Sarah invited me”. He drew out his invitation. We gasped. It was for the Association of Former Members of Parliament, for the following week. To his great credit, he never said a word.

This is the sixth Queen’s Speech for the current Prime Minister, but only the second as the head of a wholly Conservative Government. Just in case we might have forgotten, the Queen’s Speech reminds us that there will be a referendum on membership of the European Union. Perhaps many, including I suspect most of the Cabinet and even the Prime Minister himself, had expected this Speech to be after the referendum. Clearly, he had to address that sense that the Government were becoming paralysed by the focus on the referendum and the consequential divisions in the Conservative Party. That led to the best-laid plans of the Chief Whip being thrown to one side, as new timetables and schedules had to be set to complete the business of the past Session. To complete our deliberations on the Housing and Planning Bill, we had long, late sittings, crammed together. I hope that we never again see a significant, non-emergency Bill being scheduled for four consecutive sitting days, with plans to regularly sit until midnight. If the country votes to leave the EU, there will be enormous and probably immediate consequences that will have to be dealt with. It would be helpful to understand if there is a plan B, or is this Queen’s Speech the “Carry on Regardless” version?

We know that the longer he is in office, the Prime Minister becomes more conscious of his legacy. This speech has been labelled the Prime Minister’s life chances strategy. But what is new? We heard today that the Government would bring public finances under control. Similar promises were made in the Queen’s Speeches of 2014 and 2015, yet with each successive Budget, the Chancellor has had to recognise his failure and readjust the deficit fighting plans as debt has increased from around 60% of GDP in 2010 to over 80% today. We are told that the Government want to increase living standards and tackle poverty, as we were in the two previous years. What was the Government’s big idea last year?—to redefine how child poverty is measured.

In this Queen’s speech, it appears that that attempt at redefining continues. The commitment to tackling poverty and deprivation is now to be through addressing family instability, addiction and debt. Yes, of course those issues must be tackled, but they are as often a consequence of poverty as much as they are the cause. We warmly welcome commitments to improving the life chances of children in care, supporting the hardest-to-reach families, and educational excellence, but just saying so does not make it happen. If we are seriously to improve life chances for all, those commitments have to be supported and resourced. The Government’s cuts to tax credits and universal credit, the devastating cuts in support for those with disabilities, closing down Sure Start centres and ending the educational maintenance allowance make that commitment to life chances much more difficult.

As in the previous years, the Government again commit to providing for more people to own their own homes, yet we have the lowest level of home ownership in this country for almost 30 years. The number of 25 to 35 year-olds owning their own home has fallen from 59% to 34%, and it is getting harder and more expensive to rent. There is no point in promising broadband for all homes if so many people do not have one.

The Prime Minister has spoken of a relentless focus and an all-out assault to tackle disadvantage and extend opportunity. He is right to do so and his commitment is the test that we will apply to the Bills announced today. Over the next few days, we will debate these measures and over the coming Session consider the detail. In those Bills where we share the Government’s objectives, our scrutiny role will be to deploy the expertise in your Lordships’ House and play our role in ensuring effective legislation that will work in practice. When we see the new prisons Bill, it may well fall into that category, especially given the recent reports of violence and quite shocking conditions. But merely passing responsibility to prison governors, without adequate staff, resources, support and back-up, will not do the job.

I am fascinated by the announcement reported in the press that the Government’s commitment to technology heralds the building of a space station or a port for commercial space travel. As the noble Lord, Lord King, pointed out, we have not been able to extract a decision from this Government on a new runway for Heathrow or Gatwick over the past six years. Is it taking so long that we are now bypassing air travel and heading straight for outer space? Seriously, I suspect that those people, particularly in rural areas, who cannot get a bus to the nearest shops or the hospital just might think that their quality of life will be improved by more buses than more rocket ships. Perhaps we can pursue that in the buses Bill.

Some measures previously announced have already fallen by the wayside. Despite the best efforts of the noble Lord, Lord Nash, to persuade your Lordships’ House, and perhaps also his ministerial colleagues, the Government have wisely dropped plans to force all schools to become academies. I suspect, though, that the detail of that policy might not have survived the forensic scrutiny of your Lordships’ House. The Education Secretary, in promoting and defending the policy, said she had “no reverse gear”. Perhaps not. But a U-turn does not require a reverse gear, although the speed of this made it more of a handbrake turn that any boy racer would have been proud of. Let us be clear: I am not opposed to U-turns, which show that the Government have had to listen and take other views into account and that they do not have a closed mind.

We will also have legislation that goes to the heart of national security. We must at all times seek to ensure that we get the balance right between the protection of citizens from fear and harm and protection from unwanted intrusion into private lives and individual freedom. These are complex issues. Our input will be constructive and in the national interest. The work and the report of the Joint Committee on these issues will be vital in our deliberations, and I thank all noble Lords who contributed to that report, and my noble friend Lord Murphy of Torfaen for chairing the committee. We will want to work with the Government to seek changes and improvements where needed to ensure effective, balanced legislation that is fit for purpose.

We also make a plea to the Government not to bring forward framework Bills but to provide as much detail as possible in well-drafted Bills. In the previous Session, three Bills that started in your Lordships’ House—on childcare, energy and devolution—were introduced despite being deficient in detail and financial information. In some ways, poor drafting provides an opportunity to show your Lordships’ House at its best, although it is not usually recognised as being extremely helpful to government. It is not just this side of the House that complains. It was the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, in the Trade Union Bill—I promise never to quote him again—who said that,

“I wonder whether the Bill was stitched together by some special adviser who was being paid too much; some teenage scribbler who should, perhaps, have been given greater and wiser direction”.—[Official Report, 3/5/16; col. 1355.]

In choosing to examine the most controversial part of the Trade Union Bill by Select Committee, this House fulfilled with honour its duty of scrutiny. In a cross-party way, it forensically examined the detail and made recommendations which, while recognising what was a somewhat confused manifesto commitment, provided for a sensible, practical and fair way forward. Again, the whole House should be grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Burns, who chaired that Select Committee, and his colleagues across the House, who showed this House at its very best.

We welcome the commitment in the Queen’s Speech to uphold the sovereignty of Parliament and the primacy of the House of Commons. Following the tax credits vote, the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, produced his report, Secondary Legislation and the Primacy of the House of Commons. However, as recognised by our Lords committees, the content instead reflected the Government’s concerns about ensuring the primacy of the Executive over Parliament. The dispute between us and the Government over whether or not the Motion on tax credits was fatal is not productive; we will never agree. Where we can agree is that the Government clearly resented that challenge and, before any Motions were tabled, we heard threats to create 150 more government Peers or even to suspend your Lordships’ House. In spite of that provocation, the tax credits debate showed your Lordships’ House, put in an unsatisfactory position with proposals that would have been better in primary legislation, seeking a way forward to provide the Government with the time and space to reconsider—which they did and for which we are grateful.

I have always been quite an admirer of the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, as a Leader of the Opposition. He is known in this House for being a wise and courteous man, and a wily political operator. He led the challenge to the Labour Government. His voting record against the Labour Government is admired by many. In fact, he is the ideal role model for any Opposition Leader. I have said this before, but I think there are two Lord Strathclydes. There is the traditional model from Opposition, standing up for the rights of Parliament in the interests of scrutiny and good governance. So many of us were surprised when the new, modern noble Lord produced his report. I hope he will not be offended, but I prefer and agree with the traditional model, who said:

“I hope that no stones will be cast at this House for doing its job”.—[Official Report, 18/11/09; col. 13.]

Wise words indeed.

We endorse the recognition that it is Parliament and not the Executive that is sovereign and, of course, endorse the primacy of the other place. But, if we all reflect on the past year, perhaps as a House we are all adjusting to new circumstances. This is the first ever Conservative Government that has not had an automatic majority in your Lordships’ House. No Labour Government ever had a majority in this House, so we understand that at times it is frustrating and it can be challenging. I want to place on record my thanks and appreciation to those Ministers who have been willing to engage, to listen and, where necessary, to seek compromise and bring forward amendments.

For your Lordships’ House to do its job well requires noble Lords to use their expertise, knowledge and skills to work effectively and co-operatively to scrutinise legislation, which often takes much time and a lot of stamina. I thank all noble Lords who engage in many of hours of debate on Bills, propose amendments, seek clarifications and seek to improve legislation in a process that Governments should, for the most part, find valuable and helpful. We respect, and will continue to respect, those well-established conventions that have served this House well. I pledge that we will continue to be a good, effective and responsible Opposition. I beg to move.