Business of the House

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Thursday 25th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

That is very generous of the hon. Gentleman. I am coming to Scotland in about 10 days’ time and I look forward to whipping up support for the Conservative campaign, which has a really good chance of consigning the Labour party to third place in the Scottish elections. That would give us enormous pleasure and I have a sneaking suspicion that it might give him enormous pleasure as well.

This may surprise the hon. Gentleman, but he and I have the same view on Europe: I want him to succeed in the Eurovision song contest. Whether it is this year or next year, I want to see MP4 go all the way. There is even a new scoring system that might give the British entry a better chance. So I say to him, if at first you don’t succeed, keep on, keep on. We are all with him all the way.

I hate to disappoint the hon. Gentleman on the European referendum, but he will not find any nastiness because we are all friends and we all get on with each other. [Laughter.] Labour Members laugh, but the difference is that they all hate each other. They are split down the middle, fighting like ferrets in a sack. That is the Labour party today. We are going to have a grown-up, sensible debate. The country will decide and then we will work together to implement what the country has decided. In the meantime, Labour Members will run around like headless chickens, trying to work out what on earth they should do about the mess they are in.

I remind the hon. Gentleman that he is a member of the Liaison Committee, which has estimates days at its disposal and can decide what subjects should be debated and considered. I fear he may have lost the argument in that Committee, or perhaps he did not raise it in the first place. The Government delegate to the Liaison Committee the decision on what to debate on those two days, and if it does not choose to debate a particular area, that is a matter for the Committee. The hon. Gentleman will have plenty of opportunities during the year to raise and discuss issues related to public spending in the Budget debate and following the autumn statement, and I am sure he will do so.

We are all delighted that agreement has been reached on the fiscal framework. The Scotland Bill continues to progress through the other place, and if there are any amendments it will return to this place. We all want to get it into statute so that we are clearly seen to have fulfilled the promises we made at the time of the referendum in implementing all elements of the Smith commission report. I am sure that the Prime Minister will spend time in Scotland campaigning for a Conservative victory in the Scottish elections in May.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

Since 2010 it has been a criminal offence to shine a laser at an aircraft, yet over the past five and a half years there have been nearly 9,000 incidents of lasers being shone on to military and civilian—albeit it mostly civilian—aircraft. May we have a debate on what more the Government can do to protect civilian and military aircraft, so as to protect pilots and passengers and ensure that the skies above this country are safe to fly in?

[Chris Grayling]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, and it is a matter of great concern, particularly with the recent incident of a plane having had to turn back after a laser attack. None of us would wish there to be danger of a serious aviation disaster as a result of that completely inappropriate behaviour. The Transport Secretary will be in the House on Thursday week. I will ensure that he is aware of concerns that have been raised, and my hon. Friend might also like to raise them with him.