Business of the House

Charlotte Nichols Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The question keeps being posed, and I want to reassure the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Mrs Latham) that nobody is stopping MPs coming. What we are saying is, “Let’s do the right thing by each other”—nothing else. I understand that she may have thought that I want to reopen only in September. I reassure her that that is definitely not the case, hence why I have become involved with the road map to the commission on Wednesday, to make things happen absolutely in line with what is going on there. Of course, I think she and the Leader of the House may enjoy Annabel’s together, but let us move on.

[Charlotte Nichols (Warrington North) (Lab)]

As a member of the BEIS Committee, I was alarmed by press reports overnight that the Business Secretary has, without consultation, axed the Industrial Strategy Council, and that the industrial strategy has been cancelled as a footnote to the Budget, at a time when an industrial strategy could not be more vital, as we rise to meet the challenges of rebuilding after covid, the climate emergency and the post-Brexit landscape, particularly in such regions as the north-west. Can the Leader of the House please advise when the Business Secretary will make a statement to the House for scrutiny of such an important change in policy direction, rather than Parliament finding out about it, as seems to be a recurring theme, through the media?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My right hon. Friend the Business Secretary will open the debate on the Budget on Tuesday 9 March. Nothing is being hidden from Parliament. Unless we were to go back to Gladstonian-length Budget speeches, which ran to over four hours on occasions, it is not possible to include everything that is in the papers issued with the Budget in the Budget speech, but my right hon. Friend will be open for scrutiny next Tuesday.