Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill

John Denham Excerpts

Wednesday 11th December 2013 Commons Chamber

Committee to withdraw immediately; reasons to be reported and communicated to the Lords.

[Mr John Denham (Southampton, Itchen) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Earlier this afternoon I was alerted to a tweet from the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), which referred to his parliamentary written answer to me on parking charges. It states:

“when the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham) was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government…he noted that it was…Government policy to encourage councils to “creatively” and “extensively” make use of parking charges”.—[Official Report, 10 December 2013; Vol. 572, c. 161W.]

That is a gross distortion of the evidence given at the time. As the submission makes clear, the word “extensively” was not used as a description of Government policy, but as a description of fact about the activities of local councils. The word “creatively” was not used in relation to parking charges, but as an approach to improving accountability and responsiveness in service delivery. I have a fairly thick skin, but such a deliberate and cynical misrepresentation is surely out of order. Will you, Madam Deputy Speaker, advise me what steps I can take to have it put right?