Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Wednesday 4th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

Next Monday, a seemingly minor amendment to the Road Traffic Acts—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman is entitled to be heard.

[Mr Burley]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Next Monday, a seemingly minor amendment to the Road Traffic Acts will allow 70,000 severely disabled wheelchair-using children legally to use a heavier class of wheelchair that better meets their complex needs. Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating the excellent Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children in my constituency, which has been campaigning for this change in the law for over five years, and can now continue to make a real difference to the quality of life of some of the most severely disabled children in our country?

Party Funding

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

Does the Minister have a view on whether it is an appropriate use of taxpayer-funded resources for the Leader of the Opposition and his shadow Cabinet to meet their union funders in their parliamentary offices?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Look, this has had to be relatively wide, and I have tried to be flexible to Members in all parts of the House, but that is no responsibility of the Minister. He might be pleased or displeased about that, but it is nothing to do with him.

Business of the House

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Thursday 9th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Cannock Chase will be silent—I will brook no contradiction of that point. I assume that the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin) notified the hon. Member for Cannock Chase—

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

No, he didn’t—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I require no interference from the hon. Gentleman, who will behave himself and that is the end of it. I asked the hon. Member for Dudley North for an indication of whether he contacted the hon. Gentleman in question.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Thursday 9th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Devizes (Claire Perry) has a topical question, so the time when we will hear from her will not be long delayed.

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Points of Order

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Monday 14th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. May I bring to your attention the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne) and the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves)—I have notified them in advance—and seek your guidance on whether a breach of the code of conduct might have occurred during the passage of the Pensions Bill? This follows—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for advance notice of his purported point of order, a welcome courtesy that might not have helped his cause. If, as I believe to be the case, he wishes to raise a matter relating to the code of conduct—

[Mr Burley]

indicated assent.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful for his nod of assent. He should raise such a matter with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and not—I underline not—as I have had occasion to say before, as a point of order for me.

National Referendum on the European Union

Debate between Aidan Burley and John Bercow

Monday 24th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

I support the principle of having an EU referendum, yet I will not support the motion. Let me explain why those two positions are not contradictory.

I am on record as saying that our membership of the EU should be put to the British people. I am 32, and I find it incredible that the last referendum took place four years before I was even born. One has to be 55 to have voted in it. It is therefore understandable that people of my generation do not feel that they have had their say on Europe. They see the EU interfering in our everyday lives, from how fruit and vegetables are packaged, to the number of announcements on trains and, most insidious of all, how long we are allowed to work in our jobs—for just 48 hours a week. [Interruption.] It is clear to me that what was put to the people in 1975—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The House must come to order. The hon. Gentleman has been waiting courteously; he deserves a proper hearing, and that is what he must get.

[Mr Burley]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

It is clear that what was put to the people in 1975—we should remember that they voted yes—was the Common Market, but the European Union that exists today would be unrecognisable to those who voted then. When Britain joined the Common Market, it signed up to a free trade agreement. Since then, the power of European institutions has changed beyond all recognition. I am delighted that the Government have enshrined in law that a referendum must be held before any further powers are ceded to Brussels. This is a major step—one that I have supported with enthusiasm.

Frankly, given the EU’s propensities for creating new treaties, I suspect it will not be long before the people get the vote that they desire and deserve. That vote will be important. If the public vote in favour of a future treaty, it will rule out for another generation any thought of us ever leaving the EU. If the public vote to reject it, I believe it would be difficult, if not impossible, for there not to be a subsequent vote on our withdrawal. Given that the referendum that I want is inevitable, as a result of the laws passed by the Conservatives, I must think carefully about the current motion and its impact on the people of Cannock Chase.