Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Chris Bryant

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

The Minister boasts about the Government’s transparency. The Cabinet Office still holds a large cache of e-mails from Andy Coulson to Rebekah Brooks. When will the Minister publish them?

[Mr Maude]

I think that the hon. Gentleman needs to change the record.

Party Funding

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Chris Bryant

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The suggestion has been made, but, strangely, answer has come there none.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Is it not a bit shabby of the Prime Minister to engineer a situation in which he will not have to answer a single question in the House on his unfair Budget for four weeks, and has not had to answer a single question in the House this afternoon because he has sent his marionette along instead? It is particularly important that this is about the Prime Minister’s judgment. When we look at Coulson, Brooks, Werritty and, now, the Cruddas scandal, it is clear that it is a question of his judgment. How did this Government become so casually corrupt so fast?

[Mr Maude]

This Prime Minister has not appointed two Cabinet Ministers twice and had to fire them both twice.

Industrial Action

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Chris Bryant

Wednesday 30th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

As has been said, to achieve the same pension as many public sector workers will continue to enjoy after these reforms are put in place, many people working in the private sector would end up having to pay no less than a third of their salary in pension contributions. These are good pension schemes. They will continue to be good pension schemes. We want them to be so.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

I know that those on the Government Benches want to denigrate trade unions, but I am proud of being a trade unionist. I first joined a trade union when I was a vicar, though it was always a bit difficult to strike, because nobody noticed and it was difficult to identify who one’s employer was. What angers many public sector workers is that, even where there are pension funds, as the Minister admitted today, the extra 3% that is being asked for is not going into those funds. It is going straight to the Government. That is what makes it feel like a raid on public sector workers.

[Mr Maude]

I feel confident that if the hon. Gentleman was on strike today, we would definitely miss him. I commend him, as a member of a trade union, for having crossed the picket line today to come to work. The issue he raises is where the extra contribution is going. He fails to understand that these schemes, for the most part, are not funded schemes. What is not paid by staff towards the cost of their pensions is picked up by the general taxpayer. And I say again—I assume this is the basis on which the shadow Chancellor said this morning that further reform of public sector pensions is needed—that whatever is not paid by staff is picked up the taxpayer, and that all the extra cost in the past 10 years, which has risen by a third—an extra £10 billion a year—has fallen on the general taxpayer. That is why we need a fairer balance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Maude of Horsham and Chris Bryant

Wednesday 7th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Graham Stringer. He is not here.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

One quango that has done a really good job since it was brought in by the Labour Government is the Security Industry Authority, which licenses bouncers outside pubs. One role that it has not yet been given is the licensing of private investigators. We have seen over the past year that some private investigators are very good people, but some of them are the scum of the earth. Should we not be licensing them and giving that power to the authority?

[Mr Maude]

Whatever the merits of the hon. Gentleman’s point, it is one that he should make to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, who has responsibility for these matters.