Commonwealth

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I spoke in my noble friend Lord Sheikh’s debate of December 2009, and I will repeat a bit of that today. It is important to know the history of how the Commonwealth Members are entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Things seemed to have gone desperately wrong in 2009, when it looked as if we had been barred from sitting. Inadvertently, the Labour Government claimed, and I am sure that that is right, they had forgotten to renew the clause giving Commonwealth citizens the right to sit in the House. This was all printed in the Hansard of 10 December 2009.

I had telephoned the Clerk of Parliaments, because I was speaking in that Commonwealth debate, as always, and said that I would like to know which Act I was sitting under. He said, “It was always the 1981 Act. Unfortunately, that has gone and been replaced by the 2006 Act”. I could give noble Lords the names of these Acts but there is no time. “As a result,” he continued, “your position is anomalous, to say the least”. Anyway, I mentioned it in the debate and the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, replied to say that they had a few months previously discovered, three years after the Act, that Commonwealth Members were not listed and had no rights. However, she confirmed that they would correct this error before the next election and that I should keep coming, which of course I did.

However, after that, time passed by, and the issue was to be brought back in the Constitutional Reform Act. We got the agreement through in the last hour of the last day of the previous Parliament. Many noble Lords will remember what a day it was. Everyone was arguing about whether we should touch the Bill at all, having brought such a major constitutional Bill to the House, and how we could be expected to deal with all the stages on one day, when everyone thought that it was about three weeks’ work. It looked as if we would not get anywhere. However, the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, spoke up for the Civil Service, I spoke up for the noble Lords who would lose their right to sit here, and another noble Lord spoke up in favour of standards. A number of noble Lords spoke.

I pay tribute to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, who managed to persuade noble Lords to put the matter aside and bring in Jack Straw, who was the Lord Chancellor, and the noble Lord, Lord Bach, who were both marvellous throughout this whole procedure. They came with all the members of the various parties and we returned to the Sitting at 12.05 am on the last day, which was the day of Prorogation. It was almost the very last thing that went through, and I am very glad that it did. Looking around the Chamber today, I could not tell you who is Commonwealth-only, as I am, and who is Commonwealth but also has British citizenship. It is good that we have that variation.

Time is short, but I must also say that the Commonwealth as a whole has a huge regard for the Queen and there is a great deal of affection there. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, whose past three conferences I have attended, is in a worrying position. The rest of the world and all the Commonwealth believe that you must have internal audit, and there has been a resistance to that. However, Alan Haselhurst has now persuaded the CPA executive committee to accept that a formal internal audit is required. As noble Lords will know, Australia has withdrawn from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association but is still completely devoted to the Commonwealth. However, it has withdrawn. I am told that it was bipartisan and that it withdrew because of this lack of efficiency and proper administration, and that the internal audit is so essential, worldwide, in everything—giving transparency and clarity on these matters—and so that had to be resolved. Until that is resolved, I see no prospect of Australia returning, which would be a great pity, as it can be a very good organisation. I have attended the past three conferences, including one in Sri Lanka. There is no time to say more, but I am very hopeful that CHOGM will go well.