Scotland Bill

Christian Matheson Excerpts

Monday 9th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Allen]

I am winding up in a way the hon. Gentleman may not approve of—I am getting my first wind.

I hope the SNP will not forget its commitment to proportional representation just because first past the post delivered the gross, disfigured distortion of 56 MPs representing half the population and three MPs representing the other half. I hope that the hon. Gentleman feels that that is not an appropriate allocation and that the SNP renews its vigour when talking about proportional representation, because it has gone rather quiet on that subject.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend detect from the interventions of the SNP Members that they are perfectly happy to talk about devolution down to the Scottish level, but they are very keen not to talk about devolution down to the more local levels of the kind my hon. Friend is outlining?

--- Later in debate ---

[Melanie Onn]

rose—

[Christian Matheson]

rose—

[Dr Whiteford]

I will not give way at the moment as I want to make some progress, but I will come back to this and take more interventions.

The changes announced by the Chancellor have the power to cut the incomes of 4.5 million families across the UK. The SNP has been resolute and consistent in its opposition to those cuts. I wish the same could be said of other parties in this House.