Debates between Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park and Heather Wheeler during the 2010-2015 Parliament

Recall of MPs Bill

Debate between Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park and Heather Wheeler
Tuesday 21st October 2014

(10 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park Portrait Zac Goldsmith
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My hon. Friend is exactly right—I hope in due course to make such points as well as she has—including about the fact that the protection lies in the threshold, and I will come on to that in a second.

Heather Wheeler Portrait Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)
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When I sat on the Standards and Privileges Committee, it was interesting to see the sort of complaints that we received. Regularly, there were 28 complaints a month of which only one was relevant to what the Committee could look at, and it quite often ended up as a case of “No harm, no foul”. My difficulty with my hon. Friend’s amendments is that the work load created would sometimes be absolutely phenomenal. I want a very high threshold to avoid the problem of vexatious complaints.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park Portrait Zac Goldsmith
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I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I will address her points properly, but if she feels that I have not done so, I invite her to feel free to intervene at any point.