Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Davies of Stamford
Main Page: Lord Davies of Stamford (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Davies of Stamford's debates with the Wales Office
(13 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy noble friend has done a great service to the Committee by bringing to our attention the pamphlet of Andrew Tyrie—I remember it coming out, but I think that it has since slipped the memory of many of us. As he said, Andrew Tyrie laid down as a condition of a reduction in the number of MPs a proportionate reduction in the payroll vote in the House of Commons. Is it not the case that the Government have no intention as far as we know of reducing the size of the payroll vote but are going in the opposite direction? When I was in the Ministry of Defence, I thought that we could do better with one fewer Minister. Although the Government have come through with utterly irresponsible cuts in defence capability, they have increased the number of Ministers by one. That is quite extraordinary and shows that the Government are moving in totally the wrong direction.
My noble friend puts his finger on a critically important point, which I want to cover, along with other related issues, in Amendment 59.