Stormont House Agreement

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mawhinney (Con)]

My Lords, reflecting on the Statement just made by my noble friend, it is quite easy to understand why Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness would be pleased to have an extra £2 billion a year to spend. I was less clear about what my noble friend meant when she said that this £2 billion a year would help to wean the Northern Ireland economy off its overdependence on the public sector. Will she explain what that means?

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2014 Lords Chamber

I hope that the events of the past week will not bring forward, from anywhere, requests for long, expensive public inquiries. They can, in a way, only impede and hold up the healing process. That process has been dealt a very severe blow, and I am grateful to my noble friend for allowing us the latitude that we have this afternoon. It would have been wrong if this House had not had the chance to reflect on these matters, but I hope that we can now move forward and soon have a wider knowledge of precisely what happened, and that we can rebuild the trust that has been undoubtedly shattered in Northern Ireland, and indeed throughout the United Kingdom, by the revelations of last week.

[Lord Mawhinney (Con)]

My Lords, I listened with interest to my friend—and my noble friend—Lord Alderdice and his comments about delinquent children. As a product of the Province about which he was talking, I have tried to keep my delinquent tendencies under control. He and I spent many a happy hour together talking about the foundations of what was eventually to be the Good Friday agreement, and he will recall that there was always a tendency to say at a certain point, “This really ought to be moved up the chain of command to the very top”. There is a well established political ambience in Northern Ireland where, when things get particularly difficult, the inclination is to say, “Let the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Taoiseach sort it out for us”, or at the very least to give them the opportunity to put pressure on us local politicians so that we can use them as an excuse for doing what is right.

I hope my noble friend will not mind if I say that I did not quite buy the analogy. There has to come a time in Northern Ireland when, no matter how difficult it is, the locally elected people see it as being in their interests and in the interests of the people whom they serve to take on the very difficult stuff. I yield to no one in my understanding of how difficult it is.

In that context, I, too, want to show my appreciation for the work that my noble friend Lord Trimble did. He was key to this process and, as is frequently the case in Northern Ireland, those who make the principled stand soon get moved away from centre-stage for other reasons. It is right that your Lordships’ House should not forget the role that he played. When he addresses this Chamber, his words need to be taken seriously.

I had the privilege of working as a Minister in Northern Ireland—I am one of only two who did more than six years in the job—and I learnt at the knees of my noble friends Lord King of Bridgwater and Lord Brooke, who is in his place. They both know how grateful I am to them for what I was able to learn from their leadership. But their leadership consisted of us dealing with the Northern Ireland political parties on the basis of truth. Nobody ever accused us, in all the years that we had the responsibility for building up to the Good Friday agreement, of being misleading, disingenuous or plain untruthful.

One could not necessarily say that about all of the build-up to the agreement. I remember the first time that my noble friend Lord King told me about the proposed details. He asked me, as an Ulsterman, for my reaction and I said, “The unionist community will not like”—and I mentioned three things. I went on to say, “They will not like it very much”. His reply is burned into my memory: “That’s not what my officials are telling me”. Of course, those officials, by deliberate decision, excluded all Northern Ireland Office officials.

One could argue that whatever within the law had to be done to move forward the possibility of a better relationship between the two Governments and the two parts of the island of Ireland, was worth it. Personally, I take that view. I understand how difficult the agreement is, but it was a historic net plus for the island of Ireland and for the people of Northern Ireland. However, there is all that has been said—including by my noble friend Lord Maginnis, if he will permit me to call him that—about the hurt, sacrifice, bloodshed, killing and lack of being held responsible on the part of so many people. Not even your Lordships’ House in all its strength, wisdom and experience can sweep that emotion under the carpet as if it is of no concern. That is why over the past week I have been—what is the diplomatic word that would pass your Lordships’ approval?—disappointed in the former Secretary of State, Mr Hain. To argue that because people understood that there was a problem about on-the-runs meant that everybody knew exactly what was happening was disingenuous to the point of, well, being really disingenuous. People knew there was a problem but did not know what the solution to that problem was.

The second thing that bothers me greatly is the claim that these letters were only an administrative process. As we have heard this afternoon, the Attorney-General was involved in repeating that claim. When I was Minister in the Northern Ireland Office we did not do administrative processes: a Minister was responsible and had to say “yes”. Nobody has told us which Northern Ireland Ministers and which British Ministers said “yes, go ahead” to this. I do not want to hear anything more about it being “only a bureaucratic activity” or “administrative process”. That is not the constitutional way in which the British Government operate. Let us come clean on this. I look to my noble friend on the Front Bench to come clean at the end of this debate. If people are to have confidence and trust, they must be treated not as delinquent children but as grown-up adults who can take the truth and handle that truth.

One final thing: I am pleased that we are debating this. I share my noble friend Lord Trimble’s disappointment—I think he used a stronger word—that Ministers in our party have continued to behave following the bad example of the Minister in the preceding Government. However, maybe because I am getting old and cynical—I hope not—I am also seriously disappointed that my noble friend on the Front Bench did not address this issue at the start of proceedings rather than at the end. I heard her say that she would reply after she had heard the views expressed. What your Lordships’ House needed was a definitive government statement that would have set the framework for the rest of us to express views, to which she could have returned because she has the opportunity to close this debate. I do not find this process acceptable. By the way, I support the amendment.

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[Lord Mawhinney]

I thank my noble friend for giving way. In reference to her answer to the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, when this inquiry is held and a Minister is asked the question that the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, has just posed, is the Minister going to answer that question? In that case, your Lordships’ House is being told that an independent inquiry is worthy of an answer but your Lordships’ House is not.

[Baroness Randerson]

I am certainly not saying that your Lordships’ House is not worthy of an answer, but I am anxious that the answer should be legally consistent and robust. This situation has arisen in the last week. It is important that the Northern Ireland Office and the Government are able to check their records to look in detail at the history of the scheme. They will do so as part of the evidence that they give to the inquiry. It is obvious that both civil servants and current and previous Ministers will give evidence to this inquiry, and it is important that the overall picture is taken to make sure that it is accurate. I am sure that, once this inquiry reports, noble Lords will want to examine the outcome of that inquiry in considerable detail.

Northern Ireland: Recent Events

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Randerson]

I thank the noble Lord for his comments. He refers to the underlying causes. I would point out that culture changes and identity develops over a period of time. Indeed, the people of Northern Ireland have seen considerable development in their political culture in the past few years. I would also like to point out the association between the violence and the areas where there is social deprivation in Belfast in particular. That is why it is so tragic. Every time a picture on television of rioting in Northern Ireland crosses the world it does economic harm to Northern Ireland and hits its opportunity to develop a better world, particularly for its young people.

[Lord Mawhinney]

My Lords, does my noble friend recognise that she was right to point out that that what is happening is an attack on democracy? I am sure she carries the whole House with her when she says that. Although we are all shocked, we ought to be mildly encouraged that there have been previous attacks on democracy in Northern Ireland, and the people stood firm and good people prevailed—and, if I may say so, Ministers stood firm, and progress was made. We need to remember that in these difficult days. Does my noble friend also recognise the truth of part of what the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, said? Those who participate in this violence, or at least some of them, think that by doing that they can force their political agenda. Will the Government make it clear that violence will never force a political agenda and that the political agendas that have already been discussed and need to be addressed, including questions of ongoing identity, cannot be addressed in the context of a response to, or as a consequence of, the threat to democracy that this violence constitutes?

[Baroness Randerson]

My noble friend makes some important points. It is important that we make it absolutely clear that the leadership in Northern Ireland and the Government in the UK will stand firm and show the appropriate leadership. Of course, there are always issues to be addressed, and the way in which the Northern Ireland Executive have attempted very successfully to work together to overcome huge divides on occasions has always been a great example to us. It is important that political leadership at every level in Northern Ireland shows that.

Welsh Government: Tax-varying Powers

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Tuesday 27th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Randerson]

The noble Lord will appreciate that, as the report was published only last week, it is very early to make decisions. I can make no firm comments about the outcome of the process that we are going through at the moment. However, on borrowing, it is important to recognise that in October a joint announcement by the Secretary of State at the Wales Office, the Welsh Government and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury acknowledged that in principle the Government agree to borrowing powers for the Welsh Assembly, and we anticipate the potential of the Welsh Assembly having the right to raise and levy taxes in order to offset those borrowing powers.

[Lord Mawhinney]

My Lords, in the event that the Government decided to make new powers available to Wales, would this constitute a legal precedent as far as the governance of Northern Ireland is concerned?

[Baroness Randerson]

It is important to bear in mind that the Government look at each of the devolved Assemblies and Parliaments and balances one against the other. They each have individual circumstances, individual rights and a different devolution settlement from the other devolved nations of the UK.

David Livingstone Bicentenary

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Monday 23rd July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

Whether in his preparation to retain the Tour de France championship he has time to cycle round the whole of the United Kingdom, I do not know, but certainly the point about young people is well made. Those who are planning and involved in the work to commemorate this bicentenary will reflect on the importance to young people.

[Lord Mawhinney]

My Lords, getting back to the original Question, I am sure that my noble and learned friend has summed up the mood of the House in saying that there is widespread support for Dr Livingstone. I am also clear that the Scottish Government will do something about the bicentenary. However, as I leave here today, I will be equally clear that the British Government have no plans to do anything about it. If the Minister does not want me to leave with that understanding, will he explain why?

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

My Lords, I have already explained that the Scotland Office plans a commemorative event to be held here, in the Scotland Office. I have also indicated that my right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has already met representatives of the Scotland Malawi Partnership. We will also be working out how the United Kingdom Government might best be involved in these celebrations, not only with the partnership but also, as I indicated in my answer to the noble Lord, Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, by involving our officials and Ministers in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development. We certainly take this intervention seriously, and we will be looking at ways in which we can, as a United Kingdom Government, make an appropriate contribution.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Wednesday 19th January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bach]

We believe that it certainly does have implications for that, and I have already mentioned individual registration. One of the Government’s responses to this line of criticism is that bringing forward individual registration will somehow mitigate it. Our concern is that it will make it worse, certainly in the short term. What disturbs me more is that my noble friend does not remember that I was the Minister responsible for the legislation to which he referred.

[Lord Mawhinney]

I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord. He was talking about mitigating the effects of underrepresentation. As a former Minister, is it his contention that underrepresentation started in June of last year? If not, what steps did the previous Government take to mitigate underrepresentation when the boundaries for the 2010 general election were being culled together?

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[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

In response to my noble friend, this is a Committee stage, there will be a Report stage and there will be an opportunity—the opportunity I offered—for the outcome of the discussions that take place to be considered. The House will return to it and if my noble friend Lord Fowler is not satisfied with the outcome of that meeting, I have no doubt that he will be willing to table an amendment again.

[Lord Mawhinney]

For the first time since the Bill started, my noble friend has me confused. Until now I have been giving him very high marks for clarity and sensitivity, but now I am confused, so I put a question in the hope that he will be able to “unconfuse” me. When he draws the attention of his honourable friend to this debate and they discuss it, will he urge his honourable friend to think again with a view to making an amendment, or will he simply talk to him without any motivation of change? I think this House would be pleased to know what the words actually mean.

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

I will undoubtedly express to my honourable friend the strength of feeling and the argument that has been put in this House. I indicated yesterday that I am not in a position to make any commitment and that is why I hesitate to go further. The most I can do is to ensure that ministerial colleagues—not only Mr Harper—are made well aware of what has been said in this debate and of the strength, the conciseness and the power that have lain behind the arguments that have been put. That is the spirit in which I will take what the Committee has said today back to Government and I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, will be prepared to follow that up with a meeting. I cannot make a commitment; equally, I would not ask the noble Lord to do it if I thought it would be a complete waste of his time.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Lord Mawhinney Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

I am merely saying that some people—the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, is clearly one of them—believe that there is such a conspiracy. I can assert that I am not part of any such conspiracy, if one even exists. I wanted to speak today specifically because of the importance of considering the nature and character of representation. This is the issue to which the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, referred, and on which I intervened previously, not in Committee but when we debated in the Chamber the Bill’s potential hybridity and what it is about a locality that underpins the nature of representation.

While we may have had the silence of the lambs on the Benches opposite, with the notable exception of the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, and the noble Lord who has just intervened on me, what has been most notable about the discussion is the dogs that did not bark—the specific issues. The amendment provides an opportunity for those points to be considered in depth. The dogs that have not barked are serious debates about the nature of representation and of Parliament, and about what we want the House of Commons and Members of Parliament to do and how we want them to operate.

The issue of optimum size is critical, but we have not debated or discussed it in any real detail; the number appears to have been offered down from on high without any consideration. I have not had the privilege of being an elected Member of the House of Commons, but I was an elected public representative in London for 26 years. For part of that time I was the directly elected representative of 5,000 people in the Hornsey central ward of the London Borough of Haringey. For part of that time I was the directly elected representative of the people of Brent and Harrow, a constituency with an electorate of something like 400,000. I have therefore had experience of two extremes of the nature of representation, and the 400,000 figure is probably more consistent with the size of the constituencies of the United States Congress.

My point is not that I am advocating one or other as being the norm for the House of Commons; I am simply saying that there is a world of difference between the type of representation at the lower end of that scale and the type at the higher end. To pretend, therefore, that there will be no difference whether Members of the House of Commons represent 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 or 90,000 people is ludicrous. There has to be recognition of the nature of the relationship between constituents and their Member of Parliament, and that seems to be lacking in the Bill.

[Lord Mawhinney]

I have had the privilege of serving in the other place. I started immediately after a boundary redistribution with 60,000 to 65,000 constituents, and finished up with 95,000. I hope the noble Lord is not suggesting that in the latter years my constituents got a worse service.

[Lord Harris of Haringey]

No, my Lords, I am suggesting that the noble Lord no doubt had to work 50 per cent harder to deliver the service that he regarded was appropriate at the beginning of his time in the other place. That is fine, but we ought to—

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“I would have preferred a debate about what the function of the House of Commons should be and what the appropriate number of MPs should be for that function and then having the debate about the number of constituencies”.

[Lord Mawhinney]

Just for the record, I made no such implication as the noble and learned Lord has attributed to me. The point that I was seeking to make was that, whether the number of constituents is 65,000 or 90,000, it is perfectly possible for a Member of Parliament to handle that level of workload.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

I apologise. I misunderstood what the noble Lord said. Obviously, further work would need to be done. I am happy to say that when I said further work was required, the noble Lord nodded—that is the point that I am making. First, what is the workload on a Member of Parliament and what is the right size for Parliament in relation to that consideration?

Secondly, what should be the basis of determining the constituencies? Of course, I think that it should be the electoral register, though there is an issue about population. There is a respectable view that says, where you have constituencies which have very significant populations which are much higher than the electoral register, those constituencies should, in some way, reflect that increase in the size of the population. For example, just as we have a geographical limit because we think it is too far for an MP to travel all around the constituency, is there a population limit above the electoral register which should have some effect on the size of constituencies?

Thirdly, the purpose of the deviation figure of 5 per cent from the electoral quota is to ensure that constituencies are broadly the same size. That would lead to a difference in the size of constituencies of about 7,000 if 76,000 is the average size of a constituency. The purpose is to get rid of what is described as the malproportion factor. Published work, in particular by Thrasher and Rallings, and by Lewis Baston, suggests that a deviation figure of 10 rather than 5 per cent would have the same effect in reducing the malproportion figure yet at the same time allow one, in determining constituencies, to keep communities together and not have the radical effect that the government proposals would have. What work have the Government done on whether 5 or 10 per cent would make a substantial difference to malproportion? Has any research been done on that? What effect on, for example, crossing county boundaries would a 10 per cent as opposed to a 5 per cent deviation have? The Government will not be able to answer all these questions; I am asking about the research that is being done on them.

Thirdly, what effect will this have on the Executive? Reducing the size of the House of Commons from 650 to 600 will increase the size of the Executive and reduce the number of Back-Benchers. Is it the intention of the Government to stick with that? If so, what effect will that have on Parliament as a place to hold the Executive to account?

Fourthly, what will be the effect of removing local boundary reviews that can be conducted in person? These reviews have had a 64 per cent effect on changing constituency boundaries. What work has been done to determine the effect on the reliability and acceptance of the boundaries that removal of the reviews will have?

If the Government will not answer those questions or have not done the work, the questions should be answered by somebody. This is not a great reform like the 1832 Act, as the Prime Minister said; it needs work doing on it. The effect of the amendment of my noble friend Lord Wills is that that work can be done. As my noble friend Lord Boateng said, our democracy is something that we rightly prize. The idea of rushing into this change, which has the support only of one side of the Houses of Parliament—let alone of either the country or the rest of the world—is wrong. It is not an acceptable justification to say that the Tory party agreed it with the Liberal Democrats between Friday and Tuesday after the latest general election. That looks like the worst sort of political gerrymandering. I ask the Government to reconsider and to give ground in relation to an independent look at the changes that they are making.