House of Lords Reform Bill Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

House of Lords Reform Bill

Jim Cunningham Excerpts
Monday 9th July 2012

(12 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sadiq Khan Portrait Sadiq Khan
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I heard the Deputy Prime Minister desperately trying to answer that question, but on four or five occasions when such questions were put to him by his hon. Friends, he failed to answer them.

Jim Cunningham Portrait Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)
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Did my hon. Friend notice that in answering one of his colleagues earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the coalition had decided on a change to the voting system in favour of proportional representation? Only a few months ago, however, the electorate rejected that, but the coalition is not prepared to accept the democratic will of the electorate.

Sadiq Khan Portrait Sadiq Khan
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It is worse than that. The Joint Committee did not even examine the type of voting system that is now being proposed. It was pulled out of a hat without any proper consideration.

Although the Bill recognises that conventions—[Interruption.] Ministers on the Treasury Bench need to calm down.