Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 8th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Of course I agree with my hon. Friend. One of the vital principles of rebalancing the British economy is getting away from the over-reliance on one square mile, the City of London, and instead catering for thousands of square miles across the country. That means giving as much equality of esteem to manufacturing as has traditionally been given to financial services. Under Labour, manufacturing declined three times faster than it did under the Thatcher Government, but it is now finally rebounding in a healthier way than it has for many years.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

When is this coalition going to start breaking up? It is obvious that we have only nine months left for an election. At some point, the Deputy Prime Minister will have to make some announcement from that Box to say that it is breaking up.

I have an idea. There is a big march on Thursday, against pay levels, the wage freeze and everything else. Students will be on the march. The Deputy Prime Minister could join them. He could imagine that it is five years ago—he could take his little pledge card and promise them the moon. When is he going to do it?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I still marvel and admire the zeal and energy with which the hon. Gentleman delivers every question—well, they are not questions really; they are a sort of outpouring of bile. This Government will see the course through to the end of this Parliament. We have legislated for a fixed-term Parliament. That is an important constitutional innovation. As I said earlier, I personally think that coalition Governments of different compositions are more likely in future. That is why, among many other reasons, it is important that we do what we say and see through this Parliament from end to end until May 2015.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I strongly agree. I think the fundamental insight from Lord Heseltine was one that we have ignored at our peril as a country for far too long: we have relied on a culture of government that has always assumed that Whitehall knows best. Whitehall does not always know best—I have certainly learned that after four years in Whitehall. The more we can allow local business leaders and local politicians to come up with locally innovative solutions, the better for our country in the long run.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

When the Deputy Prime Minister kicked off this session, he said he supported the Government’s policies. I have to tell him, looking around the Chamber, that I do not think the leading Members of the Tory party are supporting him. They have not turned up. Three Tories have not even asked their questions. The only one who has been here all the time, the Chief Whip, is not a proper member of the Cabinet. Why can the Deputy Prime Minister not read the signs? The Government are disintegrating before our eyes. Why does he not do the decent thing and pack it in and let us have an early election?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I might ask: where is the hon. Gentleman’s deputy leader? I ask him to stop insulting the Chief Whip, who I consider to be a fully fledged member—[Interruption.] Stop denigrating the Government Chief Whip—very unfair on him indeed. Far from this Government disintegrating, we have continued steadfastly to clear up the mess left by the party of the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner), to fill the black hole in our public finances, to give tax cuts to millions of people on low and middle incomes, to introduce the pupil premium, to increase apprenticeships on a scale never seen before, and finally to put this country economically back on the straight and narrow.

Royal Charter on Press Conduct

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Monday 18th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

I am delighted to support this motion and welcome the royal charter.

The last time the three party leaders addressed the House on this issue it was because we could not agree; this time, thankfully, it is because we have. I would like to thank your office, Mr Speaker, and the Clerks of the House for accommodating today’s unusual procedure. I am also delighted to see that all sides are claiming victory today. If everyone acts like this after the general election, they will have trouble fitting us all into Downing street.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

It won’t be you.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is always on cue, even at the most solemn moments.

When Lord Justice Leveson published his recommendations, the Liberal Democrats supported them. I agreed with his basic model of a new, independent, self-regulatory body for the press, with the new recognition body authorised to check periodically that the system is working properly. Given the importance of the relationships between politicians, the public and the press, I said at the outset that we should not become fixated on the means of change, but stay focused on the end we all seek: an independent press watchdog in which people can place their trust. My party has been clear from the outset that the worst outcome of all would be for nothing to happen—a very real possibility at points.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 20th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I, too, have a significant chunk of a national park in my constituency and know that this issue divides opinion among those who are familiar with our great national parks. I have a lot of sympathy with my hon. Friend’s view that it would be a good thing if local people’s preferences were reflected more fully in the way national parks are governed, and I know that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is actively looking at the issue.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

In view of the miserable turnout at last Thursday’s elections for police and crime commissioners, will the Deputy Prime Minister and other members of his Government give a cast-iron guarantee that never again will they bleat about the turnout at trade union elections, which on average is more than double what we saw last Thursday?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The big difference is that police and crime commissioners do not write parliamentary questions for Government Members, which is what the trade union bosses do for Opposition Members, spoon-feeding them questions while funding 90% of all the Labour party’s financial needs. Police and crime commissioners do not fund either the Conservative or the Liberal Democrat parties. That is quite a difference.

House of Lords Reform Bill

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman’s public profession of love for all his 90,000 constituents must explain why he is such a well respected Member of this House and such a popular constituency Member. My answer is simple. I was and remain entirely supportive of the idea that we reform the House of Lords and also introduce boundary changes to this House. That is what was in the coalition agreement and that is what I was prepared to deliver and remain prepared to deliver. What I am not prepared to do, because I do not think coalition government can work like that, is to enter into a sort of arbitrary pick-and-choose process where one party baulks at something and the other party must none the less vote for things which are not very appetising or popular with that party. That is simply no way to run a coalition. On the substance, the hon. Gentleman is right. I remain still to this day prepared to support and vote for both, but in a coalition Government I am not prepared to allow things to collapse into a pick-and-mix approach.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

Well, every cloud has a silver lining. The House of Lords survives, and when the Liberal Democrats dump the right hon. Gentleman as their leader, he will qualify for a peerage. Will he take it?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I knew the question was going to be a nice one. No, I will not. [Interruption.] Let me explain. First, I do not think I would be very welcome in the current House of Lords, given my somewhat undiplomatic descriptions of the illegitimacy of that House. Secondly, I personally will not take up a place in an unreformed House of Lords. Call me old-fashioned—it just sticks in the throat. I have campaigned all my life, and my party has campaigned for decades now, for the simple idea of democracy, and that is what I will continue to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Wednesday 14th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As my hon. Friend knows, all such matters are for the Chancellor to announce at the time of the Budget, but I am sure everyone across the House agrees with his sentiment that we should support community pubs, which are such an important part of the fabric of our communities up and down the country.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

Q4. Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware that now that the gang of four Tories are gallivanting around America, he has got a chance to shine? What does he really, really think about this Murdoch sleaze and the latest development—the Prime Minister riding borrowed police horses, having employed Andy Coulson in the heart of government? Man to man, what does he really think? I will give him a chance to separate himself from the serried ranks of Tories behind him. Come on, be a man!

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is nothing if not skilled in crowbarring the European Commission into almost any topic, and I congratulate him on doing so again. I do not think that the parallel is an exact one, because the European Commission can only propose legislation; adopting it, thankfully, is the role of elected Members of the European Parliament and elected Ministers in the Council of Ministers.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

The Deputy Prime Minister is on television almost every week talking about the influence of the Liberal Democrats within this coalition. I have an idea for him: why does he not do something useful for a change by having the guts to tell the Prime Minister to drop the dastardly Bill to privatise the health service and get in line with all those royal colleges and the British people who are calling for the same thing?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

It is truly ironic that the hon. Gentleman gets on his high horse once again to talk about the private sector in the NHS when it was his Labour Government—I am not sure whether he had disowned them—who crowbarred into the NHS sweetheart deals with the private sector that were deliberately designed to undermine the publicly owned parts. Some £250 million of taxpayers’ money was wasted by his colleagues in government on private sector contracts that delivered nothing. It is this coalition Government—two parties coming together—who are making privatisation by the back door illegal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

Now that the Deputy Prime Minister has displayed a high state of excitement about party political donations, will he do the decent thing as leader of the Liberal Democrats and instruct them to surrender their ill-gotten gains of more than £2 million from that jailbird Michael Brown?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, that matter was independently examined; the Liberal Democrat party was entirely within its rights, and it was entirely reasonable, to accept the money at the time, even though, of course, we would not have done so if we had known then what we subsequently knew. Given that his colleagues on the Front Bench are tabling amendments and deciding how to vote according to what their paymasters in the trade unions say, we need to know whether he and other Labour MPs are voting for what they think is right, or what they think is right for the trade unions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 24th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I do not know what could be more gradualist than a proposal that would start in 2015 and not be complete until 2025. Many of the options for transition that we set out in the White Paper could not reasonably be accused of going too fast. We totally accept that a change on this scale, given that it has been discussed for more than 100 years, needs to be done carefully and incrementally.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

At the beginning of Question Time, the Deputy Prime Minister said that he was against “privatisation”. Half an hour later he said that he was against “privatisation of that kind”. A week used to be a long time in politics, but he has reduced it to half an hour.

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I said there would be no privatisation of the NHS, and that is what I meant. There will be no privatisation of the NHS.

House of Lords Reform (Draft Bill)

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Nick Clegg

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

Against the background of events a few days ago when the British people voted by 70% to throw out the alternative vote, has it not yet crossed the Deputy Prime Minister’s mind that he has probably been set up by his Tory friends to do this job today?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Never occurred to me, Mr Speaker—never. The hon. Gentleman seems to be suggesting that any electoral change or changes to the electoral system can only be preceded by a referendum. It is worth remembering that we have changed electoral systems in this country on many occasions—for the European Parliament, the London assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament—and that the Government are proposing to do it for elected mayors; all without referendums.