Debate on the Address

Denis MacShane Excerpts

Tuesday 25th May 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Perhaps I could remind the hon. Gentleman of two important points. First, in its manifesto, the Labour party supported fixed-term Parliaments. Secondly, in order to entrench fixed-term Parliaments in Scotland, almost every Member opposite who was there at the time voted for a 66%, rather than a 55%, threshold. Let me give a little warning: I can tell you, having sat on the Opposition Benches for the past nine years, that opportunism does not work. [Interruption.] It did not take them very long! The context of our Government is an appalling legacy left by Labour. I shall quote in full the letter left to his successor by the former Chief Secretary, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne):

“Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards and good luck.”

Those 13 words sum up 13 years of complete cavalier arrogance with the taxpayers’ money.

This Queen’s Speech, put forward by this new Government, is the first step towards putting things right. This country will get the complete opposite of what went before—not spending money for the sake of it, but spending it wisely and saving it; not top-down control and big government, but bottom-up change and the big society; not power for politicians, but power to the people.

[Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab)]

Will the Prime Minister remain in an alliance in Europe with parties that his Deputy Prime Minister described as “nutters” and “anti-Semites”?

[The Prime Minister]

The answer is yes, but I have been waiting for this question. For five years, I sat listening to all the right hon. Gentleman’s questions to the former Labour Prime Ministers on this issue, and never once was I able to remind him of some of the people his party sits with in the European Parliament, so I hope the House will indulge me. Labour is allied to the Lithuanian Social Democratic party, one of whose MPs said:

“As a doctor, I think that”

homosexuality “is a disease”.

I think that is a disgusting point of view. And that is who you sit with; that is who the right hon. Gentleman sits with.