Representation of the People (Young People’s Enfranchisement and Education) Bill

Joanna Cherry Excerpts

Friday 3rd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

I made this point in an intervention, but I think it is well worth making again. This is an important issue. It rightly goes to the heart of what it means to live in a democracy. It goes to the heart of what it means to be an active member of a democracy. I would imagine that a debate on votes for 16 and 17-year-olds would, unsurprisingly, be keenly watched by people of that age and perhaps by those who are even younger who have an interest in politics.

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the 16 and 17-year-olds watching this debate in the Public Gallery or at home will feel thoroughly patronised by the end of this debate?

[James Cleverly]

Certainly not by me; perhaps by her. [Interruption.]

[Joanna Cherry]

rose—

[Wes Streeting]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Interruption.]

--- Later in debate ---

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I am very glad because if there was something disorderly, I ought to have seen it. Is Ms Cherry intervening?

[Joanna Cherry]

I invite the hon. Member for Braintree (James Cleverly) to withdraw that remark. I have said nothing patronising. My point is that the tone of the debate from others who have spoken is patronising. I invite him, as a gentleman, to withdraw the remark.

[James Cleverly]

As far as I can make out there is nothing to withdraw. The hon. and learned Lady put forward the idea that young people in the Public Gallery or watching at home might feel patronised by the debate. I simply made the point that I had no intention of patronising them, and I merely asked whether they might feel patronised by her. It was not an assertion.

[Joanna Cherry]

How?

[James Cleverly]

Because—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. There is far too much noise in the Chamber. An hon. and learned Member is making sedentary interventions, and I cannot hear what she is saying. If she would like to intervene, she should stand up and make an intervention.

[Joanna Cherry]

I asked the hon. Gentleman how I had been patronising, but I think it would be much better to return to the issue at hand. Why should the young people of the United Kingdom aged 16 and 17 not get the vote as they have done in Scotland?

[James Cleverly]

I will address the implicit question in the hon. and learned Lady’s intervention, which is about the differential between certain voting rights north of the border and voting rights in England, Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom. Scotland has for many centuries since the Act of Union had a number of differentials in law. The classic one, which we have debated in the Chamber, is about the age at which someone can get married. Gretna Green is famous as the place in Scotland where runaway brides and grooms went to get married without the need for parental consent. I certainly would never want to impose English will in the form of marriage laws on Scotland, and I would ask her not to do such a thing.