Lobbying

Guy Opperman Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

As I have said, it will set out a statutory register of lobbyists.

[Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Lansley]

No, I will not give way. It would be better for me to make my speech and explain what we are planning to do than simply to try to respond to more interventions.

We did not hear from the Opposition about this subject; they did not respond to our consultation last year. It is interesting that the first time we heard from them was when we announced that we would introduce a Bill before the summer, at which point they tabled their motion calling for the Government to introduce a Bill. This is an interesting concept: they are not jumping on someone else’s bandwagon; they are jumping on ours. This is a flagrant example of that.

In the event, the hon. Member for Hemsworth did not offer any practical ideas; instead, he offered assertions and slogans masquerading as policy. He should have had the honesty to admit that the Labour Government put the issue in the “too hot to handle” box. They did not resolve the complex nature of the problem, which has been revealed by the divergent responses to the consultation. The responses showed that we are far from achieving consensus on the nature of regulation that is required.

The Government will set out to promote the culture of openness that best delivers the positive behaviours and public confidence that we all seek.