Schools White Paper

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and James Berry

Wednesday 13th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[James Berry]

I am glad that Members have been waiting for this. In Kingston, we have the best GCSE results in the country, bar the Isles of Scilly, and only one of the schools is not an academy. It is legitimate to have a debate about whether that model should be mandated throughout the country. Does my right hon. Friend agree, however, that whatever the hon. Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) misrepresented, what she did not misrepresent—[Interruption.] I am saying that she did not misrepresent—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: I know he wants to withdraw that immediately.

[James Berry]

What she did not misrepresent was the guff about asset stripping, privatisation and profit that many of her colleagues have engaged in.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. Mr Berry, we are not being helpful to each other. You are withdrawing the comment about misrepresentation. I think you have got your question across. I am going to hear the Secretary of State. You have withdrawn the remark. That is great. Thank you.

Housing and Planning Bill

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and James Berry

Monday 2nd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[James Berry]

I am sorry but I will not.

I reject the amendment tabled by the Liberal Democrats—I see that the eighth of the party that proposed it is no longer here—coming as it does from the party that talks a great game on housing and the vulnerable, but fails to deliver. Take the local authority in my constituency. The area was controlled by a Lib Dem council until 2013, yet it has one of the worst records for house building—including affordable house building—in London. What did the leader of Kingston Council until 2014 say about that: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing.” I think that is a shameful response to the 6,000 people on council house waiting lists in Kingston, and to young people who have grown up or come to my constituency to go to university but can no longer afford to live there. It is typical of a party that is quick to criticise yet slow to accept criticism.

Whatever the Government’s efforts to increase home ownership, it is inevitable that a large number of people will continue to rent. I support the Government’s intention to create a rogue landlord and letting agent database, and for London I encourage further devolution of that database to the Mayor, so that it works hand in glove with his efforts to accredit good landlords. I would like the Government to consider in detail the proposal by my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) to have a database for all landlords and letting agents—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order.