Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Bryant Excerpts

Tuesday 26th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we will be publishing a Bill early in the new year, which we are drafting at the moment on a cross-party basis, to reform the other place. In the meantime, in keeping with traditions that were also pursued by his Government, appointments will be made as a proportion of and in line with the results of the general election.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

It is estimated that 200,000 people will be forced out of major metropolitan areas as a result of the Government’s niggardly proposals on welfare reform, which will turn London into Paris, with the poor consigned to the outer ring. That is the equivalent of three parliamentary constituencies, according to the Deputy Prime Minister’s desiccated calculating machine of a Bill. Would it not be iniquitous if, on top of being socially engineered and sociologically cleansed out of London, the poor were also disfranchised by his Bill? How does he propose to make electoral provision for those displaced people?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

We all indulge in a bit of hyperbole, but I have to say to the hon. Gentleman quite seriously that to refer to “cleansing” will be deeply offensive to people who have witnessed ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world. It is an outrageous way of describing—

[Chris Bryant]

That is what you are doing.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

No, I will tell him exactly what we are doing—

[Chris Bryant]

That is what you are doing.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

No. We are saying that it is perfectly reasonable for the Government to say that they will not hand out more in housing benefit than those who go out to work, pay their taxes and play by the rules would pay when looking for housing themselves. We are simply suggesting that there should be a cap for family homes with four bedrooms of £400 a week. That is £21,000 a year. Does the hon. Gentleman really think it is wrong that the state should not subsidise people to the tune of more than £21,000, when people cannot afford to live privately in those areas? I do not think so.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Solicitor-General]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on her appointment as shadow Solicitor-General. There are many people who think that the Law Officers themselves are pretty shadowy, but I—

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Shabby or shadowy?

[The Solicitor-General]

I would never accuse the hon. Gentleman of being shabby. His dress code is always immaculate.

[Chris Bryant]

You have lost your train of thought now.

[The Solicitor-General]

I think that the train of my thought is concentrating on the shadow Solicitor-General.