UK Government Union Capability

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Thursday 1st July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I am grateful to be reconnected, albeit by telephone. It is notable that the word “referendum” has ceased to dominate the constitutional debate in Scotland in recent weeks. The reality has dawned that, although the country is divided—something that demands our attention—support for separation and a referendum has fallen and is now roughly where it was seven years ago.

The years since have been wasted. Apart from the increase in powers granted from the 2014 referendum, which, like all such initiatives, made matters worse, there has been a void. The excellent report by my noble friend Lord Dunlop gathered dust for two years, just like its two predecessors from your Lordships’ Constitution Committee, which it echoes. I thank the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, on behalf of that committee for his kind remarks.

Past neglect must not be allowed to continue, and today’s rather short debate is welcome; I hope it is the first of many. Sustained action of the sensitive and well-modulated kind is now urgently needed. The experience of Covid-19 has shown not just how much the devolved Administrations depend on the UK for help and support with vaccines, expertise, money and the Army, but how much we all have in common with our fellow British citizens. We share a common identity. Covid must not be an excuse for delay in implementing the diverse, broadly based action programme.

Time does not allow for detail today, but I stress that it is at the core of the nation—the union—that action is most needed. The report on intergovernmental relations is a welcome first step, but a host of other measures is necessary, and above all we need a change of tone. Reports and reviews do not in themselves win hearts and minds and that is the essence of the challenge.

Finally, I ask my noble friend the Minister to note that structural change to the constitution has a bad record in this field. I urge him to be very cautious over any such further proposals that may come to him.

Budget Statement

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Friday 12th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome the five new noble Lords, who are joining us unmuted today. It is also a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. Just over 40 years ago, when he and I had been elected to the other place for the first time, we were invited to subscribe to the introduction of a tight monetary policy to tackle the nation’s severe problems and send the IMF packing. I cannot speak for the noble Lord, but I supported it fervently. This was not because I supported the ideology; I do not believe in ideologies where money and the economy are concerned—there are too many variables, and change can be sudden and unexpected. But I believe in doing what seems the right thing at the right time according to the circumstances.

Today, the circumstances are wildly different, and I think my right honourable friend the Chancellor’s handling of both the pandemic itself and now, as we hope, the aftermath, has been absolutely right. The Keynes doctrine of changing one’s mind when circumstances change has never been more apt. We must now capture the tide of an expected growth rate in the economy of 4% this year and 7.4% next year: the coiled spring of pent-up demand. Spending and investment become very important indeed at that stage in forming, we hope, a sustained recovery. That is what the Budget should do, with powerful incentives for companies on investment and public duty. At the same time, the Chancellor has to signal strongly to the wider world that he is determined to tackle our debt when our exposure is serious, and bring things back towards a steadier discipline. The future of corporation tax changes and the freezing of personal allowances signal that, and they should not affect the recovery.

The biggest threat to recovery is inflation. Loose money supply, once thought to be disinflationary with low interest rates, is now seen as the reverse, especially if its velocity of circulation grows as the economy expands. As we all know, where inflation rises, interest rates follow. I hope and feel sure that the Chancellor is already watching this carefully, as inflation could be the next enemy.

European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

3rd reading & 2nd reading & Committee negatived & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard) & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee negatived (Hansard) & Committee negatived (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 30th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con) [V]]

My Lords, one could view the Bill as the final step in the long process, over four years, of retrieving our laws from the EU, through hundreds of statutory instruments, and realigning them with domestic law. The Bill delivers the final batch and will implement it. Like the noble Lord, Lord Butler, I congratulate the negotiators on their remarkable achievement.

As such, the treaty and Bill are welcome, but they are welcome for so much more, because the outcome brings certainty by concluding four fractious years, at last allowing business to plan and invest for the future. More importantly, they restore sovereignty. Edmund Burke said that the state is something

“to be looked on with … reverence”.

Indeed it is, but it is something more than that: sovereignty gives a nation a mainspring, an inner core, without which its sense of identity and, therefore, its drive and purpose are blurred. Our sovereignty, shared with the EU for many years until now, has a direct and practical relevance to how we go forward.

It has been said that the treaty sets a new standard in trade deals. It certainly enables us to conclude further deals with other nations, free from the handcuffs of EU control. We have just concluded a major deal with Japan. Turkey is said to be poised to conclude one with us. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, embodying many of the fastest-growing nations in the world, is beckoning. Australia, Canada, the United States and others are also on the list. I was encouraged to read that the Department for International Trade, part of the old department where I sought to champion free trade, is already reassessing its former methods of appraising economic benefit in trade deals and tipping towards our national strengths in the international market, where the business potential is huge.

One cannot help but notice the change of tone within the business and financial commentariat. Where there used to be endless gloom about leaving the EU, now, from the Bank of England downwards, the tone is much brighter. The pound is stronger and the stock market is rising, because we are free from control in the slowest-growing continent in the world.

I hope that our future relationship with the EU, still a major market for us, will be close and productive. We may be able to support it better from the outside and by example, but the EU’s share of world trade has crashed during the years of our membership. We can do better, following the outcome that this fine broad-based treaty represents. We should now come together as a nation, look to the future and seize the opportunities.

House of Lords: Relocation

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Tuesday 14th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord True]

My Lords, I recommend courtesy by everybody, Executive or otherwise, in dealing with colleagues and with Parliament.

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con) [V]]

My Lords, the rumour is a persistent one. Does my noble friend agree that our bicameral parliamentary system strengthens the checks and balances of the Executive in Parliament? How would splitting the system and moving to York this House, in which no Government have a majority, improve those checks and balances? Is it not the case that this would not be decentralisation, as has been mooted in the rumours, but would in reality deliver more centralisation into the hands of the Executive in London?

[Lord True]

My Lords, I agree that practical working considerations are important. I repeat, however, one of the wider considerations here, which is that the Government’s intention, which was very clear in the manifesto, is to find ways to bring the whole process of government closer to the people. I do not believe that Parliament or, indeed, this House should simply reject that concept or the idea that that matter needs to be reflected on. Constructive proposals and discussion of this are always welcome.

Covid-19: Economy

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as per the register. My right honourable friend the Chancellor is surely right to stress the urgency of getting his recovery plans under way as quickly as possible, as lockdown gradually becomes unlocked. He has a major challenge as he seeks to balance between borrowing, spending and taxation while retaining confidence in the stability of the public finances and seeking to liberate private enterprise.

It will be a rough ride. Business needs confidence to invest; we would prefer certainty. It is hard to guarantee that in the present circumstances, but one way in which the Government can help is by standing firmly behind their commitments to conclude Brexit by the end of this year. The pressure to extend negotiations for two more years with the Barnier blockade—incidentally, costing many billions of pounds or euros—must be resisted. We would like a good deal but, more than that, we need finality. We have already left the European Union, whose share of world trade has fallen from around 40% when we joined to around 15% now. Europe is the slowest-growing continent in the world. We cannot accept continued servitude to regulations. We should have no part in trade deals, continued membership of the common fisheries policy or the outreach of the European Court of Justice. That could mean leaving without a deal—not the best outcome, but one that could quickly be built on.

Anyway, WTO rules are very familiar to many, as most of our foreign trade is conducted in this way. Tariffs are low and falling, and I was glad to see my former department produce a commendable new UK global tariff, under which more than 60% of incoming goods will be zero rated. It is regulations and euro-bureaucracy, not tariffs, that damage trade.

Of course, the EU countries will remain important markets to us, and we to them, but we must also focus more urgently on the global scene. With trade deals with the US and Japan already in negotiation and membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership beckoning, overseas trade is one of our routes to recovery post Covid-19.

European Union (Withdrawal) Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con)]

My Lords, like the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate after an apparent mishap or two with the speakers list.

I have two general points to make. The first is about the nature of the Bill. I agree with the noble Baroness the Leader of the Opposition who, at the start of the debate, made the point that the Bill is poorly named, which is perhaps why it has attracted measures of criticism and mischief elsewhere for what is largely a technical Bill which does not deserve that kind of treatment. I would have called it the “Transposition and Rehabilitation of Legislation Bill”—that might be suitably dull and boring to head off some of the worst troublemakers. It is a technical Bill, and I suggest that it would be quite wrong for this House to treat it either as a proxy for the battle over our departure terms from the EU or even for whether we should depart at all.

Departure from the European Union was given effect by the invoking of Article 50 last March, approved by Parliament. That followed a referendum, also approved by Parliament; and afterwards, all parties undertook to support the result. Much is read into what the electorate might have meant by their vote, but the question they were asked was not, “Shall we leave if we cannot get a good deal?”, or, “Shall we remain unless we can stay in the single market?”. The question was simple and unqualified: “Leave or remain?”. And the electorate chose to leave.

Despite an aversion to many aspects of the European Union, I had voted remain on economic grounds. But once the electorate delivered the verdict that we, in our wisdom, had devolved to them, I took the view that I am glad to hear reflected elsewhere in the House today—that we must accept it and implement it, with the best deal we can achieve. In that context, I particularly welcome what my noble friend Lord Bridges of Headley said—that the negotiations need to be got a grip of, and a clear way forward mapped out, as soon as possible.

This Bill—complex in nature, constitutionally important and administratively essential—is a consequence of the referendum decision. I support it, not as the trigger for our departure, nor to affect future relationships with Europe, but simply to sort out the legislative consequences of departing, to protect the rule of law in this country, and to seek legal certainty and continuity from the moment we leave the European Union by bringing home all the legislative measures that have accumulated there over 46 years. Without it, there would be chaos.

My second point concerns the drafting of the Bill and its implications for the balance of power between Parliament and the Executive. The Constitution Committee has—uniquely, I believe—produced no fewer than three reports on the Bill. The first—over a year ago, when I had the honour to chair the committee—was produced before the Bill had even been published, such was our concern about what its terms might be. The latter two were under the admirable chairmanship of my successor, the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Bolton. The latest report, published yesterday, has been forced to conclude that the Bill is “fundamentally flawed” in multiple ways. If that is so, we are clearly right to be concerned, and to remain so.

Now is not the time for detail, but we recognised at the outset that—unavoidably, given the scope, scale and complexity of the task—the Government would need additional delegated powers over secondary legislation. We also listed a broad range of protective constraints that would be vital to balance these. Some have been secured, but the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, has listed an impressive list of what still needs to be done. I continue to support her approach and that of her committee on this important matter.

On the devolution issues, some of which were debated in the House last week, I hope the Government will listen very closely to what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, said. His analysis, surely, cannot be bettered. Essential though it is that the Bill passes into law, I conclude that, should it be used also as a means for the Executive to gain permanent new legislative powers at the expense of Parliament, that would be a dire price to pay, in the long run, for the sake of restoring what one may soon be able fondly to refer to once more as “the law of the land”.

Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lang of Monkton (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby. As we are debating a lobbying Bill, I suppose that I should declare my interests. I had the honour to chair the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which is much concerned with lobbying, and to be a member of the Select Committee on the Constitution. Both, in a sense, are marginal to the central debate surrounding this Bill, but the Select Committee criticised, with good cause, the unnecessary speed and lack of advance consultation with which the Bill was introduced in another place. I believe that undue haste is bad government. The matter was three years in gestation with no draft Bill, no White Paper and no consultation, and unsurprisingly therefore the content has been widely criticised. This, I believe, should be, as the committee said in its report, a matter of significant concern. Indeed, it baffles me that Governments should behave in this unnecessary but highly provocative way.

I know that, because of that, Part 2 of the Bill has aroused great concern—we have heard much of that already in this debate—especially among charities. Of course, Part 3 was always bound to attract a certain amount of interest from the party opposite, but in the time available I propose to confine my remarks to Part 1.

While the Bill aims at professional consultant lobbyists, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments focuses on individuals. We are concerned with Ministers leaving government and senior civil servants leaving or retiring from the Civil Service, and that embraces ambassadors and senior military personnel. One of our tasks in considering their applications to us is to prevent them, when taking up subsequent appointments, whether with industry, commerce or even charities and consultancies, lobbying their former colleagues or government in general for up to two years. We are concerned with a different part of the lobbying spectrum. It is a broad and divisive spectrum, and therefore we have a different definition of lobbying.

The Bill has another definition because it has a different focus: on corporate lobbying consultancies, rather than on individuals. I believe that definition is all in these matters, and a single, comprehensive definition of lobbying is elusive—indeed, perhaps impossible. As the Government’s briefing note says, and as the Minister said today, its aim is to,

“shine the light of transparency on consultant lobbying”,

not to act as a complete regulator of the industry. That creates anomalies, which I shall come to, but it is probably wise to concentrate on that category in the Bill rather than to seek a comprehensive solution, because lobbying comes in all shapes and sizes and from many different sources. They are not all malign or dangerous to parliamentary democracy. Indeed, the taint that has begun to fall on some aspects should not be allowed to be got out of proportion.

Lobbying in one form or another has been around for centuries. Plantagenet kings held their Parliaments in all parts of England, and they summoned those Parliaments not just to raise taxation for their foreign wars and crusades but to hear the pleas, complaints and concerns of their citizens, to entrench their kingship and, indeed, to enact Acts of Parliament and thus to give form to the rule of law over a period of time.

Ever since then, lobbying has been, and is, part of the life-blood of our parliamentary democracy. We cannot and should not seek to choke it off. Therefore, the Bill is surely right not to try to do that but to focus on the main areas of concern. However, shining the light of transparency, in the best Nolan tradition, on one aspect underlines the lack of transparency in others. It may be that the parameters are too tightly drawn, and that needs to be explained because a spotlight on one sector casts a shadow around about it. For example, the Bill does not include in-house public affairs departments or multiclient firms, such as lawyers pursuing the legal interests of their clients. What of consultant lobbyists who do not themselves lobby government, but who train their clients and advise them on whom to lobby and how to go about lobbying?

On the persons who are lobbied, the focus is put on Ministers and Permanent Secretaries or the equivalent, but does not cover special advisers, who are often well placed to influence government policy. What about those civil servants who are below Permanent Secretary level, but are highly expert and influential in particular sectors of, for example, industry, defence or health and may work closely with major companies in those fields? Ministers and Permanent Secretaries are already required to disclose on a quarterly basis the names of those outside government whom they meet. Has the Minister considered whether an easier, and perhaps more effective, approach to the lobbying issue might be to require anyone in government, whether parliamentarian or civil servant, who is lobbied by discernible commercial interest to declare that in a lobbying register?

I welcome the provisions approved in another place and the clarification in Schedule 1 of the position of parliamentarians. In this House in particular, there are many noble Lords with distinguished careers from which they have derived immense expertise and wisdom who could feel inhibited from speaking on their specialist subjects in this House for fear of being thought, quite wrongly, to be lobbying in some way. I hope that the Bill may help to lift that particular shadow.

In courtesy to the many remaining speakers in this debate I have been relatively brief. I conclude by saying that the Bill as it stands, with its register, registrar and enforcement powers, has a net, but one that will probably catch few fish. It may be enough to draw the sting and the taint from the lobbying issue. I hope so; but if not, it will be something to build on.

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lipsey]

I owe the House an explanation, whichever way things go tonight, for moving an amendment which I believe to be otiose. Perhaps I may briefly explain. The matter at stake is whether there would be a problem in accepting the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, because voters queuing at a polling station would be able to hear the result of an exit poll and could change their vote. An exit poll cannot be published before 10 pm but it could be published at 10 pm and the result could become known to those people queuing at polling stations.

That may seem a bizarre hypothesis but it was advanced at some length on 14 January by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, when he replied for the Government to an amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick. He must have meant it because he said it with some conviction, although it would be fair to say that the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, had not previously had responsibility for the Bill. At the time, the Government had the problem that the Minister who knew about the Bill did not believe in it as it then was. Therefore, they had to find someone to take his place. But let us leave that aside because the noble Lord said it and, therefore, it must have been the policy.

How sensible is this argument? There is no evidence—I repeat, no evidence—that an exit poll has ever affected the vote of any voter. John Curtice, the leading psephologist at the University of Strathclyde, who kindly researched this for me, said:

“I have not uncovered any pieces on exit polls having an impact on voter choice”.

It does not happen.

It is true that exit polls can in certain circumstances affect elections. The effect is on turnout. There is no British evidence on this. There is American evidence, although it dates from the 1980s, referring to a Reagan election. In the event, people on the east coast voted. The exit polls were reported and voters in California who were going to vote for Reagan did not bother to vote because they had heard that on the east coast he was winning easily and so why bother. The turnout could have been affected by between 1% and 5%. If you try to apply this to the hypothesis in the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, you have the situation of a person who comes rushing back from work thinking that he can just get his vote in. He rushes to the polling station and finds to his consternation that there is a queue. However, thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, he can have a ballot paper anyway. Provided that he is in the polling station by 10 pm, he gets a ballot paper. Then he switches on his telephone and learns that the exit poll is showing that the Tories are going to win. The man then says to himself, “I have rushed back home, rushed to the polling station and been prepared to stand around while they finally produce a ballot paper for me but, having heard what the exit poll is showing, I am going back home without voting”. It really is a most absurd hypothesis. Even if in some extraordinary case it was true, what is the chance of it affecting the election result?

The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, might result in a few hundred extra voters picking up ballot papers, even if we mess up things again as badly as we did last time. They will not be all of one party, of course. Let us suppose that a few of these voters did walk out and went home, most of the seats in places where this occurred would have been safe or quite safe. The chances of those voters not being there and not casting their vote making any difference to the result are practically zero.

When I was in Whitehall, we used to play a game late at night as to who could get a Minister to make the most ludicrous argument in either House of Parliament. It was a fantasy game, of course. This measure would have been a strong qualifier to win the gold medal in that game. However, just in case anybody believes this argument, I have provided a belt-and-braces amendment so that the exit polls cannot be published until 10.30 pm and, as a result, all those watching the 10 o’clock news will not know the result of an election. At least, thank goodness, the danger of the Pannick amendment affecting in any way the result in a single seat will be averted. Is that a price worth paying? Your Lordships will decide.

[Lord Lang of Monkton]

My Lords, as a member of the Constitution Committee and a signatory to the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, I rise to support not only what he has said but what I hope the Minister is about to say. Indeed, I have cast my notes aside because their tone was such that, had I proceeded, he might have withdrawn what he was about to say.

I am delighted to hear that common sense seems to have prevailed because a vote is a fundamental right in a parliamentary democracy. That is something of which we should never lose sight. Heaven knows, not enough of the electorate cast the votes that they are entitled to cast. For guidance we need look no further than the procedures in this House where, because of rising population, the increasingly awkward structure and access to where we vote and the time limit that we are up against, the doorkeepers have very sensibly developed their own process whereby, after eight minutes, they move in behind those who are present and waiting to go through the Lobbies, and nobody else can vote. If that can happen here in this rowdy House, I suspect that it can happen in the polling stations up and down the land if proper, sensible legislation is enacted. I will say no more and, in the interests of the cause, I will now resume my seat, supporting what I hope I am going to hear.

[Lord Tyler]

I, too, want to speak briefly to Amendment 11 in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Pannick and Lord Lang, and their colleagues. It is tempting to follow the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, who always entertains the House, because he demonstrated not only the ludicrous nature of some of the objections that we had from the Front Bench last week but a rather ludicrous solution to those objections, if I may put it like that.

I wish to follow the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Pannick. We, too, have benefited from some very useful discussions with Chloe Smith, her ministerial colleagues in the Cabinet Office and the Bill team. I hope that my noble friend on the Front Bench will indicate that those discussions have brought forth a fruitful conclusion. I hope that that will be dealt with tonight. I do not think that it can be left any later in the passage of the Bill.

There was a time when it was suggested that this concern arose simply from some inadequacy or administrative incompetence in a few polling stations and the anticipation of the outcome in a few constituencies in 2010, and that there was therefore no need for any statutory change. We on these Benches felt that that was not sufficient and, for the important reasons advanced in Committee last week and briefly touched on this evening, we should make it absolutely clear that an elector who has gone to all the trouble of going to the polling station and is there before the allotted time has elapsed should be given every assistance to cast their vote. If the citizen is inside the polling station or in a queue before the deadline, that situation is similar to when someone is in a shop and wishes to make a purchase, the shop is open for business and closing time has not happened. Surely, in a polling station, the citizen should transact the business of democracy in exactly the same way and be permitted to vote.

We quoted in Committee last week the practical example in Scotland where this attitude was assisted by an acceptance of that principle. The Electoral Commission has strongly supported us again on the amendment. It is a failsafe amendment. We assume that there will not be great crowds turning up at the very last minute because of a change—a very small change—in the legislative framework of elections. It is surely the right thing to do and I am grateful for all the indications that there have been from Ministers that they now are listening, not just to the mood in this House on this issue but to the careful, considerable advice of the Electoral Commission, which is, after all, Parliament’s adviser on an issue of this sort.

Scotland: Civil Service

Lord Lang of Monkton Excerpts

Thursday 6th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I should of course declare a family interest. A relative of mine campaigned actively for Scottish independence and was executed by the English. I do not think that it is appropriate for a Minister to comment on the behaviour of a senior civil servant. I have read the Scottish press for the past week and I am well aware that the leaders of the three opposition parties in Scotland have written to the Cabinet Secretary. I will ensure that a copy of his reply, when it is ready, is placed in the Library of the House.

[Lord Lang of Monkton]

My Lords, is it not one of the strengths of the United Kingdom Civil Service that it is a United Kingdom body? In the past, great advantage has arisen for both sides when Scottish civil servants have served in United Kingdom departments and vice versa. Will my noble friend ensure that he makes every possible effort to prevent any diminution of this historic trend which might undermine the union?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, there are civil servants in Scotland working for the UK Government as well as civil servants in Scotland working for the Scottish Executive. This is a single Civil Service and there is extensive interchange. Indeed, the Permanent Secretary in Scotland about whom these complaints have been made has worked for a number of other institutions within the UK. Perhaps I might read the relevant parts of the Scottish version of the Civil Service Code, which was first issued in 2006. I shall quote from the 2010 version. It states:

“As a civil servant, you are accountable to Scottish Ministers, who in turn are accountable to the Scottish Parliament”.

A footnote adds:

“Civil servants advising Ministers should be aware of the constitutional significance of the Scottish Parliament and of the conventions governing the relationship between the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive”.

Perhaps I may add that the next paragraph states that,

“‘impartiality’ is acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving equally well Governments of different political persuasions”.