Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)

- Hansard -

This is my first time presenting a petition in this place, and I did not expect to be doing it at this particular hour. I was hoping to do it a tiny bit later, because waiting for me in the Pugin Room are four Daventry councillors who are enjoying their afternoon tea while mine goes cold. However, this is a very important petition.

In the beautiful village of East Haddon in my constituency, there is a wonderful pub called the Red Lion. The talk of the town in East Haddon is not windmills, although we have plenty of them around the place, and they are the talk of the town in other parts of my constituency; nor is it High Speed 2, although the people who live in the village of Byfield will most certainly be talking about that in the pub. The talk of the town in East Haddon is the Barnett formula. A number of my petitioners, perhaps over a nice cold dry white wine one evening, got very excited about the Barnett formula, and about the fact that English people are being hard done by in regard to a fair and equal per capita distribution of taxpayers’ money across my constituency. They are therefore petitioning the House of Commons. Dr Angus Walker has put this together, and I hope that I can do him justice here today.

The petition states:

The Petition of residents of Daventry,

Declares that the Petitioners believe that the use of the Barnett Formula in the distribution of Government funds should be replaced with an equal per capita distribution for all races in the United Kingdom; notes that the Petitioners believe it to be iniquitous that some parts of the United Kingdom are discriminated against because of race; and further notes that the Petitioners consider that it is wrong to permit such discrimination to be exempted in law.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to discontinue the use of the Barnett Formula in the distribution of Government funds and replace it with an equal per capita distribution for all races in the United Kingdom.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.

[P000935]