"The challenge was that this Bill was launched very fast in the House of Commons, without pre-legislative scrutiny, whereas other private Members’ Bills have often been knocked around for a long while and discussed in detail, so that their flaws were recognised, adjusted and amended at different times. This Bill …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"The whole point of the process is that we have a revising Chamber. If the Bill were to be reintroduced under the Parliament Act, we would be in dangerous territory. We are mischaracterising the Lords. We need to be careful about that, and very careful about using a parliamentary mechanism …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"I have very little time left and I need to make a couple of other points.[Interruption.]Well, we have had strict instructions on time. I will, as I said at the beginning of my speech, take an intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. Before I go on to make some other comments, I want to nail a few myths that have been brought up.
There has been some talk of how Government Bill Committees that Members have sat on have been shorter …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"I need to make progress, but I will give way in a moment.
Most of the Lords speeches on the Bill were very short. Filibustering, which many hon. Members in this Chamber will have done or seen, is when Members stand up to speak for prolonged periods. Sometimes the Whips …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
The point is that the Lords had a discussion about what to do in those circumstances, for which there was no policy. Such things are important to nail down and resolve, yet that issue is still not resolved.
"I very much welcome this report by Alan Milburn, who highlights the need to work cross-sectorally to support young people. I wonder if the Minister could take away the thought that he could test and learn by doing a pilot with Choice in Hackney, which works with disabled people, and …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"I wonder whether the Minister could clarify this specific point. If a single-sex organisation wanted to open its doors to trans people, would that be to all trans people, or could a women’s organisation, for example, open its doors or membership to trans women exclusively?..." Meg Hillier - View Speech
"It never fails to amaze me that the shadow Chancellor tries to lecture this Government on inflation when many of us were here in September 2022 when the Conservative party crashed the economy. I welcome my right hon. Friend’s interventions. I am particularly interested in the cut in VAT in …..." Meg Hillier - View Speech