Debate on the Address

David Tredinnick Excerpts

Wednesday 27th May 2015 Commons Chamber

[Emily Thornberry]

I can tell the right hon. Gentleman that 67 years ago, Churchill said:

“The Movement for Europe…must be a positive force, deriving its strength from our sense of common spiritual values. It is a dynamic expression of democratic faith based upon moral conceptions and inspired by a sense of mission. In the centre of our movement stands the idea of a Charter of Human Rights, guarded by freedom and sustained by law.”

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is talking about my party in terms that I certainly do not recognise and she has accused us of being a divisive party as far as the Union is concerned. I thought that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made it perfectly clear that we are a Conservative and Unionist party and that we intend to retain the Union and to do what we can to do so.

[Emily Thornberry]

I hear what the hon. Gentleman says and if he is satisfied with some of the rhetoric from those on the Front Benches, let him be satisfied. It is important to look beyond the rhetoric and see with our very own eyes the real damage being done by what is happening to this country. This is a matter of huge concern and I ask the hon. Gentleman not to be complacent about where we might go if we start to pull apart our Human Rights Act and our place in Europe.

Let me explain to the hon. Gentleman. In Strasbourg, European judges make judgments all the time that essentially quote at length what happens in our Supreme Court. Our Supreme Court applies our Human Rights Act and does so across the board. If the hon. Gentleman were unfortunate enough to be arrested in Europe, he would have the right to a lawyer, which he would not have had if it had not been for the British system, which understands that people have a right to access a lawyer in order for there to be a fair trial. That was an interpretation of human rights that we exported to Strasbourg, and has now been exported right across Europe. It is a two-way street. Of the tens of thousands of cases that went before the Court at Strasbourg, does the hon. Gentleman know how many judgments there were against Britain last year? There were three.

[David Tredinnick]

The hon. Lady tempts me and I crave your indulgence, Mr Speaker. The point is that we are trying to deal with an Act that has proved to be inadequate in dealing with the terrorists that we are trying to get rid of, and we want to bring those decisions back to this country. That is a very laudable objective. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has not set it out in any detail because he wants to give it further thought, but it is widely supported in this country.

[Emily Thornberry]

Will the hon. Gentleman give me a moment in which to answer, because I only have two minutes left? The fact is that within our constitution—our unwritten constitution, which we play with at our jeopardy, if we do not think through what we are doing—we have different pillars. We have the Executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and of course there will always be tension between them. If we all agreed all the time, what would be the point? In what way would we be a democracy? There will be times when we disagree and, in the end, human rights is about protecting minorities. It is about protecting the weak against the strong. Yes, there will be times when people whom we wish to have no truck with at all will rely on basic rights and we must give them to them. That is the British way, and it is one that we are proud of and should remain proud of, and we should never allow it to be undermined.

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[David Tredinnick]

The Queen’s Speech states:

“My Government will bring forward changes to the Standing Orders of the House of Commons.”

It would not be done on a whim: that is what the Queen’s Speech says.

[Sir William Cash]

Well said. I entirely concur with my hon. Friend.

On the repeal of the Human Rights Act, when I was shadow Attorney General, I pushed that policy with the help of colleagues in the shadow Cabinet. It remained as a commitment in our manifesto until the coalition of 2010. It was abandoned because of the Liberal Democrats, and now it is to be revived. I offer a word of caution, however, because it is a very important issue. In many respects, it is part of the “who governs?” issue and I strongly suggest adhering to the proposals in the Queen’s Speech. We need a proper discussion. I am clear in my mind, as is Lord Judge and many other distinguished judges, that there are serious problems with the manner of interpretation in the Strasbourg Court and with the use of right to family life as a principle, and how certain people manage to exploit the system, well funded by the human rights lobby, to carry on when they should have packed up a long time ago.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

Thank you for calling me, Mr Speaker. It is my first task to congratulate the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O'Hara) on a very thoughtful and entertaining maiden speech. He reminded us that his constituency occupies one tenth of the land space of Scotland. I thought I had a large constituency, but that is enormous. I think I met him outside the Table Office this morning, and I wish him well. As he—not me—put it, he has broken his political virginity today, or something to that effect, and there is no better way, as he also put it, to do it than in the Queen’s Speech debate. Many congratulations to the hon. Ladies and Gentlemen from the SNP on their stunning victory, and on being present in such numbers this afternoon to support colleagues.

I wanted to comment on the tribal warfare that seems to have broken out in the Chamber at prayer time at 8 o’clock in the morning, when we come in to put prayer cards on seats. I do not know whether I am breaking confidences in telling you this, Mr Speaker, but this morning there was a wild dash to get the seats on the Opposition Front Bench below the gangway and there was some deep unhappiness. Indeed, there were members of the Scottish nationalist party whose seats had hardly touched the green benches at the back before they were clambering to the front.

In case hon. Gentlemen and Ladies think that they have set a precedent, I can assure them that they have not. When we went into opposition in 1997, the Liberals came up with the same scheme. Instead of the embattled hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner), it was the embattled former Prime Minister, the then right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup, Sir Edward Heath, who found himself being monstered by the newly enlarged Liberal party. You may not be aware of this, Mr Speaker, but I can tell you that it was resolved when Speaker Boothroyd decreed that the right hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup would retain that seat—you are nodding—and no doubt you are thinking carefully about whether it is necessary to have a protection order on the hon. Member for Bolsover in these extraordinary circumstances.

This has been a wide-ranging Queen’s Speech. It was a great occasion for Conservative colleagues to be back in power with a majority, and to hear Her Majesty the Queen give a speech that was straight out of our manifesto instead of being one that had been adulterated by the Liberal party. I absolutely support the set-in-stone blocks on increases in income tax, VAT and national insurance, which make it absolutely clear where we are for business—hon. Ladies and Gentlemen from north of the border may like to mark that. I welcome the referendum on Europe, and the powers to take over failing schools and to create more academies.

I am also delighted with our commitment of £8 billion to the NHS, meeting the NHS five-year plan. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) spoke about foxes earlier. I welcome the fact that we really shot the Labour fox during the campaign. It is very important politically that we did that. However, I am concerned, having served on the Health Committee in the previous Parliament, and having been involved in health for so long in this House, that we are not really addressing the issue of reducing demand for the health service. If I may advertise the fact, I have tabled early-day motion No. 1, encouraging the Government to tackle the obesity crisis in this country, and early-day motion No. 2 asks the Government to look at the quality of food in hospitals, some of which is really not up to standard.

It may surprise the hon. Ladies and Gentlemen from the Scottish nationalist party that I have been, in this House, passionate about healthcare in Scotland. I was in the House before devolution. I flew, at my own expense, to Glasgow to the opening of the Homeopathic hospital—the Glasgow Centre for Integrative Care as it is now—in 1999. I feel passionately about a wider choice in healthcare in Scotland, but since devolution I cannot table a question on Scottish healthcare. Scottish Members, on the other hand, are able to comment on our affairs in England. I offer that as an illustration of the frustration felt by English Members about the imbalance and why we have to tackle the West Lothian question, as it has been called for years.

In the last Parliament, the Health Committee produced a report called “Managing the care of people with long-term conditions”, which was published when I was acting Chair of the Committee. I commend it to the Scottish National Members, because it deals with the issues of multimorbidity polypharmacy, when people suffering from many diseases are prescribed many medications. That is a particular problem for people in Glasgow and other parts of Scotland. So we do take an interest in Scottish affairs.

I represent a seat in the middle of England. It is not a traditional shire seat and it was held by Labour until 1974. It was won for the Conservatives by my predecessor, Sir Adam Butler, a very distinguished man. It is extraordinary how we have transformed the economy in my constituency. I was saddened by the speech from the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier), because in my area I see thousands of new jobs. We cut unemployment—that is those on jobseeker’s allowance and universal credit—by 40% generally and by 45% for 18 to 25-year-olds in one year, so there is something stirring in the heart of England.

I am delighted that the Queen’s Speech contains measures to push High Speed 2 north. I served on the Committee that considered the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996—High Speed 1—which enabled the building of the line from St Pancras to the Dover portal. It took as long as it would take to walk, at a leisurely pace, from London to Madrid and back to complete the consideration of that Bill. We sat for three days a week for over a year, and it was the last railway Bill. I am sure that extending High Speed 2 north is the right thing to do, as is bringing the northern cities together to create this great hub. The fact that our Chancellor—the man with the moneybags—represents Tatton is very helpful to those in the north.

As I have said, I take an interest in Scotland. I am related by marriage to a family in Scotland, one of whose members made the last speech in the Scottish Parliament against the Union some time ago—not the current Parliament, but the one that finished in about 1704. Scottish Members face a huge problem. Scotland already has some tax-raising and fiscal powers that it has not used. If we are to give it a whole lot more, which is part of the agreement, that is fair enough, but if they are used there will be the equivalent of a white flight of resources—businesses and clever people—south of the border. I predict that if the Scottish nationalist party—[Interruption.] Forgive me, I mean the Scottish National party. I am in the flow of my speech and I am trying to be polite, not insulting. If the SNP increases taxes dramatically, I predict that in 10 years’ time it will lose to the Conservative party in Scotland because a Labour recovery is not likely. If Scotland increases taxes and its economy is completely out of line with that in England, the SNP will lose to our party. I just issue that word of warning.

I am not keen on the proposed reduction in the number of Members of Parliament from 650 to 600. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) has already said that Parliament has changed dramatically. He has served here for more than 30 years and I have served for 28 years. That was before we had computers and mobile phones, and we used to have to stop on the motorway to make calls. Our job has become more complicated and we are more like social workers. I do not relish the idea of representing more people. The current number is about right and we should think very carefully about any change.

I have been thinking about the points my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) made on foreign affairs. At the end of the cold war, in the 1987 and 1992 Parliaments, some of us spent a lot of time building relations with Russia. Judging by what I hear, I do not think we have any understanding of how closely aligned Russia feels with Ukraine, which was always administered by Moscow. However difficult it appears, it is not sensible to have Russia offside.