Business of the House

Ann Clwyd Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I applaud the work that my hon. Friend does as Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee and his involvement in the group he mentions. If the Committee did a report on these issues it could provide a route for their finding their way into a debate through the Liaison Committee. Alternatively, he could apply to the newly established Backbench Business Committee for a debate on the subject, or he might find it possible to speak about it at next Thursday’s pre-recess Adjournment debate and get a response from my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House.

[Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) (Lab)]

I am sure that the Leader of the House will agree that good communications between Members and their constituents are important. For the past three days, the telephone in my constituency office has been out of action. I do not know whether anybody else has faced the exasperation of trying to contact BT recently. I spent three quarters of an hour on the telephone yesterday, trying to get hold of somebody to talk to about the problem. My office has spent three days trying to get hold of a person to correct the fault. BT was privatised by the Conservative Government in 1984. It made a profit last year of £2.4 billion. Surely somebody can look at this problem, given the difficulties it is causing Members and their constituents.

[Sir George Young]

I am sorry to hear of the problems that the right hon. Lady faces in her constituency office. I have always found Clova Fyfe, who works for BT, enormously helpful in solving constituency problems. I will bring to her attention the difficulties that the right hon. Lady faces in her constituency office and see whether they can quickly be put right.