Early Parliamentary General Election

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Wednesday 19th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

I accept entirely the logic laid out by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in her statement yesterday in Downing Street. I reached that conclusion somewhat earlier, but I did not believe it was possible to deliver. Indeed, I found myself discombobulated by a reversal in Government policy for the second time in a few weeks, having told the readers of the Forest Journal in terms that there was no question of there being an early general election, because it was not in the Prime Minister’s gift to deliver it. Because of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, that decision lies with a two-thirds majority of the Members of the House of Commons and, as I told those readers with absolute confidence, turkeys will not vote for Christmas. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on having achieved the impossible and secured the fact that today those turkeys will indeed vote for that.

I first reached the opinion that an election was necessary during the passage of the article 50 Bill. Opposition Member after Opposition Member got up to announce their recantation that, notwithstanding having voted to remain, they were now going to abide by the will of their constituents. Yet at every opportunity they cheered to the rafters those few who spoke out to say that they remained with the 48% and believed that, as events unfolded, the 48% would become a majority. They pursued a strategy of desperation: a strategy of “Hang on, something might turn up”, whether that was the long-promised economic shock or whatever. The “hang on” strategy, however, requires an essential ingredient: delay. Delay was the tactic they clearly pursued through their amendments to the Bill and they promised there would be more.

The other place is currently not bound, in respect of the Government’s policy, by the Salisbury convention. The right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) and I were invited to debate in front of a City audience the motion “That the United Kingdom is leaving the EU”. Two highly respected peers—Lord Butler, the former Cabinet Secretary, and Lord Lester, one of our premier human rights lawyers—argued the case that we would not leave the European Union because they were in a position to prevent it and would do so. The policy the Prime Minister announced, of pursuing a general election and securing a mandate in this House and a mandate to bind the other place to the Salisbury convention, is therefore essential.

I am confident that the Prime Minister will achieve that majority, because I am confident that she will be backed by the overwhelming majority of this nation. She will know that last year I voted for every other possible candidate for the leadership of the Tory party. I have to tell her that I have become her greatest fan. As my constituents recognise and tell me continually, she is doing magnificently. May she long continue to do so.

Advisory Committee on Business Appointments/Ministerial Code

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 20th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

The hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) is incisive in how he asks his question. I agree that we all obviously have a challenge in raising the reputation of our democratic institutions and the people who serve in them. That would not be served by a Minister of the Crown coming to the Dispatch Box on a Monday, following an announcement the previous Friday, to set out a new policy just to suit the particular agenda of the day. It is for the House to have a wide consideration of whether it thinks that it is right or wrong for people to have outside interests—I think that there are arguments on both sides. In the meantime, we all need to consider our individual duties to the wider body politic in the way in which we behave.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The Minister has a justified reputation for his devoted and assiduous work on his ministerial duties. Has that in any way diminished his ability to serve his constituents?

[Ben Gummer]

It has not in any way at all.

European Council

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The Joint Ministerial Committee process has been operating for some months at various levels and has brought UK Government Ministers together with the three devolved Administrations to discuss issues that have been raised on both sides, including looking at the Welsh Government’s paper on Wales’s particular concerns, which are being taken into account.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

The Premier of Luxembourg apparently believes that we might yet be persuaded to stay in the EU. Are there others like him? If yesterday’s emphatic proceedings did not disabuse him, will the Prime Minister do so in the nicest possible way?

[The Prime Minister]

I think we can be reassured that the votes that took place in this House and in the House of Lords last night and the granting of Royal Assent to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill will send a clear message to everybody in Europe that we mean business.

Informal European Council

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Sir Desmond Swayne. [Interruption.] He is a very good-natured fellow but he was chuntering at me at precisely the wrong moment. We will forgive him. I thought he was standing—

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

I was about to go to an appointment, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

The right hon. Gentleman now has the opportunity of an appointment with the House. I would be astonished if he has no view to express—it would be a first!

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Unsought though it is, I am delighted to have the opportunity to ask: has there been any discussion hitherto about the assets of the European Union to which we might have some claim after 40 years of being a major contributor?

[The Prime Minister]

I can assure my right hon. Friend that in looking at the future negotiations, we will be looking at every angle of the relationship with the European Union.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

The hon. Gentleman is right to point to former failures of accessibility in online services; direct.gov.uk was appalling for accessibility. We now make sure that all services are accessible by design, but I will repeat his comments to the Government Digital Service for its interest.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

10. How is progress on the Minister’s excellent Verify system proceeding?

[Ben Gummer]

It is proceeding well, but not well enough, and I want it to be faster.

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Thursday 2nd December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

It is important that IPSA has a voice in this Chamber. I am delighted that the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) took on that role, because, of 650 MPs I cannot think of a better person to be the devil’s advocate. I am a member of the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. Unfortunately, despite my best endeavours over the past three months, the Committee has not met. I therefore congratulate the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) on securing this debate and colleagues on supporting it.

It is important that we praise IPSA’s front-line staff, because they, like us, are in this situation: we may be in different canoes, but we are in the same creek without paddles. We should also take on board the enormous debt of gratitude owed to our office staff. It has been estimated that the equivalent of 100 full-time MPs’ staff jobs are now devoted to dealing with IPSA affairs—it is as serious as that. The hon. Member for Bassetlaw estimated that more time is now being spent on this in his office, so even the leading advocate of IPSA acknowledges that fact.

Earlier, the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) made a very serious allegation about the head of communications at IPSA. I hope that by the end of the afternoon the Minister will be able to say whether there is any truth in the allegations. Interestingly, today’s Daily Mail and Daily Express had almost identical stories, which must have come from the same source. The Daily Mail at least had the good grace to say,

“Leaked figures from the…Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority”,

so it acknowledges they were leaked from IPSA. The same article belittles MPs for claiming expenses in August when we were on holiday. A good journalist is always at work and a good policeman is never off duty, and the same goes for an MP and their staff.

[Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Bob Russell]

I would rather not, because of the time limit.

We must not say that all journalists are averse to finding out what is happening. Matthew Parris, in The Spectator of 6 November, says:

“Now to the facts. IPSA is careering stupidly out of control. Many MPs, particularly new young members, are close to despair, but dare not complain publicly because of the witch-hunting atmosphere that still prevails.”

He goes on to say:

“The salary of IPSA’s own director of communications (leading a team of three communications staff!)”—

who are they communicating with, other than leaking to the national media?—“

is more than £80,000”

a year.

There are stories of MPs enduring long waits on the hotline, and long delays when IPSA replies to letters and so on, to which Matthew Parris also refers. There have been approximately 150 parliamentary questions, including some from the hon. Member for Bassetlaw. IPSA is taking up more and more time. As an MP for 13 years, I have come to realise that the job is different from anything else, but IPSA thinks that MPs work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

IPSA did not bother to go to constituency offices. Very early on—long before any brown stuff hit any fans—I invited the chief executive to my constituency, because I thought it would help him to know what goes on. There is a do-down-MPs culture at the top of IPSA. I do not include the front-line staff because I think that, like us, they are doing a grand job. I cannot think of any other description for that culture, and frankly, I no longer care—I have gone way past the stage of caring—what the national media may or may not say about me and my expenses. My conscience is clear. I know that like just about every other MP, for the past 13 years, my wife and I have subsidised my work as an MP. The second homes thing caused a major problem for me like it did for others because of inattention to form-filling, if I can use that phrase. That is a world of difference away from how we are now being treated. Matthew Parris finished his article in The Specator by saying:

“It is left, I would argue, to Fleet Street’s Westminster and Whitehall journalists and commentators and to political scientists. They talk to MPs. They know it’s a big problem. Yet few have entered more than footnotes acknowledging it. Why are they silent?”

I doorstepped IPSA’s offices to find that they are the most luxurious offices to be found anywhere. There we have a problem, because IPSA tells me that I am claiming too much for my converted church hall. It has even told me that my claim for a photocopying machine could not be paid. I do not know of an MP who does not have a photocopier, but I was asked to prove that mine exists. I sent IPSA a photograph of it, but even that did not work—I still did not get payment for the machine. It was easier for me to open a new IPSA bank account and front load it with £5,000 rather than wait for IPSA to reimburse me. My wife and I paid that money. I do not know of a family doctor who has to pay the rent on his surgery or pay for medicine and claim the money back, but IPSA feels that MPs should be treated in that way.

I had cause to write to the chief executive of IPSA because it managed to fail to pay the national insurance of one member of my staff for three months. We all know that a break in NI contributions can have serious consequences. I eventually received a reply—unsigned—not from the chief executive, but from the deputy payroll manager. That shows the contempt in which MPs are held in the highest levels of IPSA.

I have tabled questions to find out how our Prime Minister and Cabinet colleagues are getting on with their IPSA claims, although I have managed to get only three answers back. Hon. Members will be pleased to know that the expenses of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs are managed by the “Parliamentary Office”. The Secretary of State for Defence said that

“the information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.”—[Official Report, 19 November 2010; Vol. 518, c. 966W.]

The Prime Minister said:

“I am aware of concerns surrounding the expenses system and am keen to see improvements.”—[Official Report, 1 November 2010; Vol. 517, c. 495W.]

There we are—the Prime Minister wants “to see improvements”.

I cannot work these things out, so I asked my office at lunchtime to find out the latest thing about me on IPSA’s website. It said:

“IPSA Claims System—Web Site Error…A general website error occurred during your last performed action…System administrators have been notified. Please try again later.”

There is much more that I would like to say. Frankly, however, IPSA needs to get its act together. Even the Prime Minister says that there must be improvements, so I look to the Chamber to set the ball moving today. If the hon. Member for Bassetlaw wants a vote, let us have a vote.