Business of the House

Lord Barwell Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, I have announced that there will be an Opposition day. Perhaps his bid was heard by his friends on the Front Bench. He will also know that waiting lists doubled under the last Labour Government and that is the problem we are now trying to address.

[Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)]

The sympathy that my constituents feel for public sector workers who face a freeze in their pay and changes to their pension contributions will be significantly eroded by the inconvenience and worse that will be caused by the proposed strikes. May we have a debate on the legitimacy of those strikes, so that we can see whether Labour Members will stand up for their constituents or their paymasters?

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. We are trying to get a fairer balance between the public sector employees and the taxpayer, who pays a very large percentage of the pension contributions. My hon. Friend raises a good point. I detect public sympathy ebbing away from those who are planning to strike and they would do well to reflect on that before they go ahead with their action on Wednesday.