Oral Answers to Questions

Jesse Norman Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I have always been very open about this matter. It is something that I believe in and that my party believes in, but it is not agreed on across the coalition. That is the nature of coalition government. My coalition partners are perfectly entitled to have a different view on when people should be entitled to vote. I will continue to argue for my point of view.

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

The Silk commission has received ample testimony on a pattern of unfairness from the Welsh Government, including in the treatment of English NHS patients, the use of the ambulance service and the sharing of water and other resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister reassure the House that he will do everything possible to ensure that those anomalies are resolved?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The anomaly, as my hon. Friend politely puts it, is the lamentable record on the NHS of the Labour Administration in Wales. He refers to the Silk commission, which was a bold step towards the further devolution of powers from Whitehall to Cardiff. The Prime Minister and I were in Wales the week before last to announce that process and it has been universally welcomed by all parties in Wales. That comes in the context of the debate about the future of the United Kingdom and Scotland’s place within it. The Silk commission has shown in practice that we do not need to pull the United Kingdom apart to have a greater devolution of powers to its constituent parts.