Business of the House

Jesse Norman Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Lucy Powell)]

The business for the week commencing 6 January 2025 includes:

Monday 6 January—Debate on a motion on seizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, followed by a general debate on backlogs in the NHS. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

Tuesday 7 January—Second Reading of the Crown Estate Bill [Lords].

Wednesday 8 January—Second Reading of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Thursday 9 January—General debate on tackling violence against women and girls.

Friday 10 January—The House will not be sitting.

The provisional business for the week commencing 13 January will include:

Monday 13 January—Business to be determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

Tuesday 14 January—Remaining stages of the Renters’ Rights Bill.

Wednesday 15 January—Remaining stages of the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill.

Thursday 16 January—Motion to approve the draft Deposit Scheme for Drinks Containers (England and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2024, followed by business to be determined by the Backbench Business Committee (unallotted time).

Friday 17 January—Private Members’ Bills.

As it is Christmas, Members may also wish to know that, subject to the progress of business, following the House rising for the summer recess at the close of business on Tuesday 22 July, the House will return on Monday 1 September. The House will rise for the conference recess on Tuesday 16 September, and return on Monday 13 October.

[Jesse Norman]

Mr Speaker, may I associate myself very strongly with the remarks you have just made about hospices? You will recall that St Michael’s hospice was the topic of a recent discussion that we had at the Dispatch Box in business questions.

Mr Speaker, I must confess that I feel a slight degree of trepidation and nervousness, because at the weekend I received two massively welcome Christmas presents with the result of the Manchester derby and—dare I say it?—the defeat of Chorley by Hereford in a tough, hard- fought game at Edgar Street. I remain worried that I will need all of your legendary reserves of Christmas loving kindness in order to mention this.

This is the time of year when we think of friends and family, of our armed forces that keep us safe here and overseas, of those who care for others wherever they may be, and of the emergency services that protect us all the year round, but especially over the holiday period.

Mr Speaker, I think you will know that, in relation to this House, Parliament’s own record is not absolutely unblemished when it comes to Christmas. Fuelled by puritan hostility to public celebration and unseemly revelling, the Long Parliament—Parliament, no less—outlawed the celebration of Christmas in the 1640s. People naturally reacted, notably with the plum pudding riots in Canterbury in 1647, which began with a football game, but ended up with a brawl. How very different from the results at the weekend.

Perhaps the worst moment for this House was during the protectorate, when Parliament sat on Christmas day 1655, and Colonel John Desborough attempted to impose a decimation tax while many royalists were out sensibly celebrating the Christmas season. A punitive and partisan tax, and an unpopular, blundering Government up to various tricks and seeking to rush their business through the Commons while the House’s back was turned—how lucky we are that such a thing could never happen today.

However, my personal favourite is 1659, when the supply of French wines was temporarily cut off, creating absolute mayhem in London and other cities across the country. What to do? There could be only one answer: Members of Parliament should drink Herefordshire cider. It was every bit the equal of Burgundy and Bordeaux, as Roger Bosworth, my predecessor as MP for Hereford in the 1659 Parliament, insisted, and it was the ideal remedy for smoothing away troubles. Bosworth was a medical doctor, so he well knew the life-enhancing benefits of Herefordshire cider.

I think the lesson is clear: I doubt the plum pudding riots would have happened at all if the people of Canterbury had had Herefordshire cider to drink after the football. I only hope that the Chorley players were able to do the same after that hard-fought game on Saturday.

Mr Speaker, to you, to the Clerks and the House staff, and to all our colleagues across these Benches and in the other House, I wish a very merry and Herefordshire-filled Christmas and a happy new year.

[Lucy Powell]

Mr Speaker, I too would like to start by wishing you and everybody in the parliamentary community a very merry and restful Christmas. From the Doorkeepers to the cleaners, the police, the Clerks, Hansard and the Lobby, to the hairdressers and the gardeners, there are so many to thank. May I also take this opportunity to thank Katie from my private office who has led all the preparations for business questions for successive Leaders of the House over the last two years? She is leaving for pastures new and we will miss her greatly.

I will not join the right hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) in mentioning the derby match at the weekend if he does not mind, but as this is the last business questions of the year, let us reflect. It is out with the old and in with the new. I ended the last Parliament paying tribute to outgoing Members from that Parliament and we did lose some very big figures from this place, but come July we gained the biggest intake of new Members in modern history and it has been really energising to see so many enthusiastic, committed and talented new colleagues. They have all got to work so quickly, and many feel like old hands already. It has been a whirlwind for them and all of us arriving in Government and I think we all deserve a proper break over Christmas.

It has been not just a huge change for Parliament but a big change in Government too. It has been difficult, of course, as we face unprecedented challenges and a very difficult legacy. Trying to return Government to the service of ordinary working people, not vested interests, is a big task for us to undertake, but the oil tanker, as they say, has started to move. We are taking on the water bosses to end the scandal of bonuses over investment. We are for the first time ensuring our home-grown energy supplies meet our ambitious targets for clean energy by 2030. We are addressing the housing need and the housing crisis with bold action, bringing in new rights for workers and renters, and creating a transport system in service of passengers not profit. And we are restoring our health and education into world-class services with record levels of investment.

Many hon. Members will no doubt be in Santa’s—or perhaps I should say Mr Speaker’s—Christmas good books: colleagues who ask short topical questions; those who speak through the Chair and make sure they are in the Chamber for wind-ups; those who wear appropriate shoes; the judges of Purr Minister for crowning Mr Speaker’s cat, Attlee, the champion; and, of course, anyone mentioning Chorley or rugby league in a positive sense.

But there will perhaps be some who will not be getting a visit from Mr Speaker’s Santa this year: Ministers who do not make statements to Parliament first and instead go on the BBC; hecklers in Prime Minister’s questions; Members with pointless points of order; anyone who announces to the media their intention to secure an urgent question; those who cross in front of a Member as they are speaking; and, lest we forget, any Member drinking milk in the Chamber.

As I was, until July, the shadow Leader of the House, I might give the right hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire a little advice for these sessions, based on some of his previous appearances: if he does want me to answer questions, perhaps he could make them a little less long-winded; perhaps for next year, he might not want to contradict his own previous positions quite so often; and going into 2025, he might want to reflect a little more on why his party lost the election.

If you will forgive me, Mr Speaker, given that it is Christmas time, perhaps we can take one final opportunity to look at the Conservatives’ legacy: 12 hour A&E wait times; 11% inflation; 10 Lords defeats on Rwanda; 9 million inactive workers; 8,000 bus routes cancelled; 7 million people on waiting lists; six councils bankrupt; five Prime Ministers toppled; 4 million children in poverty; three broken pledges; two nurses’ strikes; and a Prime Minister at a lockdown party.