Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dennis Skinner and Thérèse Coffey

Thursday 21st April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Dr Coffey]

My hon. Friend should be aware that it is usual for the Government to respond within two months of a report being published, and we intend to stick to that timetable.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

I wonder whether the Government will, in retrospect, look at private Members’ Bills in a dispassionate way. In 1987, the late Enoch Powell wanted to introduce a Bill—and nearly got it through—to ban all stem cell research. I discovered on the morning that I could move the writ for Brecon and Radnor, and I spoke for nearly the whole day. Every time I hear on the BBC about stem cell research saving people’s lives, I know that that filibuster was not a bad thing at all.

[Dr Coffey]

The hon. Gentleman talks about filibusters, but I am sure that if he really had been filibustering, the Speaker of the day would have brought him to order. He nevertheless found a way at that time to use a device so that business that he felt was inappropriate did not make its way through the House.