Business of the House

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I think there are enough health-related issues, and all sorts of other issues, to worry about, focus on and debate without inventing crisis and drama where there is none. The hon. Gentleman acknowledges that petitions are a matter for the Petitions Committee, which is a Committee of this House. I am not responsible for its decisions. I will facilitate and help him to secure debates and raise questions, and to do anything else he wants to do, on any topic on which he wishes to campaign.

The hon. Gentleman will know, because he has secured well-attended debates in the past, that this House is very open to discussing all sorts of issues, including the World Health Organisation and the treaty about which I know he is concerned. Let us focus on the real issues, the substance and the matters at hand, rather than pretending that this House, anyone in it or any of its Committees has a hidden agenda, because he knows that is not true.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the Leader of the House agree that this is probably the most perilous time for the world during my long time in the House of Commons? Does she also agree that this House needs to be up to date on what is happening in the world? Last week, I had to watch the Foreign Secretary appear before the House of Lords on television to be informed of our foreign policy and what he is doing. I understand that no Conservative Member of Parliament seemed fit to be Foreign Secretary and that we had to go to the House of Lords, but can we have more regular debates and statements? It is not right for the elected House of Commons to have no Secretary of State to answer questions during these perilous times.

[Penny Mordaunt]

I implore the hon. Gentleman to recognise the merits of the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), who has appeared at this Dispatch Box an enormous number of times, and to acknowledge that the Foreign Secretary, who obviously sits in the House of Lords, has made himself available to hon. Members on a raft of issues. He has particularly made himself available to those Members who have been affected by what is happening in Israel and Gaza.

The hon. Gentleman will know that the Procedure Committee has made further recommendations on how this House can scrutinise the Foreign Secretary, and I am sure the House of Lords will shortly take a decision on those recommendations.