Business of the House

James Clappison Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The Government’s position on benefits was set out in the Budget last June. We made it clear that benefits and pensions should be linked to CPI. We have made firm commitments on that basis. There will be an uprating statement later this year in the light of the latest CPI and retail prices index figures.

[Mr James Clappison (Hertsmere) (Con)]

A few moments ago in response to a question, my right hon. Friend described Conservative policy in the last manifesto of being

“in Europe but not run by Europe.”

He will remember a particular occasion on which he was standing for election, when he described himself as being somebody who was

“in the Conservative party, not run by the Conservative party.”—[Official Report, 22 June 2009; Vol. 494, c. 619.]

Does he think that the same principle could usefully be applied to the Back-Bench business on Monday?

[Sir George Young]

I think that the quotation that my hon. Friend refers to was made during one of the speakership elections in which I stood—in fact, I think that I said it in both speakership elections. Had I been elected, I would of course have stood by that. However, on Monday I think that we need to consider what we said in our manifesto. As I have said, there was no commitment to an in or out referendum, but there was a commitment not to transfer any more powers to Brussels. We have secured the referendum lock. I hope that he will listen to the Foreign Secretary’s speech on Monday and come to a conclusion in the light of the balance of the arguments.