Business of the House

Melanie Onn Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

Will the Deputy Leader of the House please give us the future business of the House?

[The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

The business for the week commencing 6 June will be as follows:

Monday 6 June—Remaining stages of the Investigatory Powers Bill (day 1).

Tuesday 7 June—Conclusion of the remaining stages of the Investigatory Powers Bill (day 2).

Wednesday 8 June—Opposition day (1st allotted day). There will be a debate on an Opposition motion. Subject to be announced.

Thursday 9 June—General debate on carers. The subject for this debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

Friday 10 June—The House will not be sitting.

The provisional business for the week commencing 13 June will include:

Monday 13 June—Remaining stages of the Policing and Crime Bill (day 2).

I should also like to inform the House that the business in Westminster Hall for 13 June will be:

Monday 13 June—Debate on an e-petition relating to foreign aid spending.

[Melanie Onn]

I am sure that the whole House will want to join me in wishing many happy returns of the day to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition and to my hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds). Happy birthday!

Today is the last of six days of debate on the Gracious Speech, and I think we have all reached the same conclusion: this Government are completely hamstrung by Europe.

“The government has nothing to do, nothing to say and thinks nothing.”

Those are not my words; they are the words of the sad man on a train, Michael Portillo. It is the British public who are paying the price for the Government’s paralysis. Will the Deputy Leader tell us why the Government dropped plans for a Bill to include the names of the bride’s mother on marriage certificates? The current system is a patriarchal throwback; society has moved on. We support the move in principle, so what is stopping them? May we have a statement on how the Government plan to meet their manifesto commitment to halve the disability employment gap, given that there was no mention of that in last week’s speech?

The Government could not even bring forward a ban on wild animals in circuses. The Prime Minister said he would do that in the previous Parliament, but did not. The Conservatives promised it in their 2015 manifesto, but so far, nothing. Only two travelling circuses in Britain still use this cruel practice; it really cannot be that difficult to introduce a ban. I wonder whether it has anything to do with the fact that the company that trains the animals for the circuses is based in Witney?

May we have a statement on NHS recruitment in the light of the study from the National Union of Students and Unison published yesterday showing that scrapping bursaries for student nurses will deter 2,000 people from training for careers in the NHS? The health service already has a recruitment problem, and nursing remains on the occupational shortfall list, so why do the Government insist on making it worse?

There has been much debate about debates this week, specifically the TV debates for the EU referendum. What should the format be? Who should the speakers be? For the sake of the viewers, I think we should pick the most entertaining advocate for each side. For Brexit, I suggest the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), and remain could be represented by the former Conservative Mayor of London.

For those who complain that it would not be a fair and balanced debate, let us imagine how it would play out. On the unlikely prospect of Turkey’s ascension to the EU, pro-EU Boris might again say:

“I believe our generation has a historic chance…to build a bridge between the Islamic and the Christian worlds”,

and:

“What are we saying if we perpetually keep Turkey out of the European Union just because it’s Muslim?”

Brexit Boris, on the other hand, could recite his poem in which he insultingly found a rhyme with Ankara and suggested that the Turkish Prime Minister had an inappropriate relationship with a goat. [Interruption.] I’ll get there.

On America, pro-EU Boris could point to his joint US-British citizenship and once again stress the importance of our special relationship, while Brexit Boris could suggest that we should not pay attention to President Obama because he is “part-Kenyan”. Brexit Boris might bemoan the European regulations that ban bunches of more than two bananas—a claim that pro-EU Boris might call “demented”.

For their closing statements, Brexit Boris could read from his column in The Daily Telegraph in which he announced he would be backing the leave campaign, while pro-EU Boris could read from the same column in the same edition, which he wrote in case he decided to back the in campaign.

The serious point is that the next Prime Minister will not be chosen by the public; it is Conservative party members who will have the final say on our country’s leader. All I will say to them is that they should look across the Atlantic, where their sister party is trying to put into office a two-faced populist who is completely without principle, who incites violence against journalists and who is willing to say anything, no matter how offensive or plainly false, as long as it takes him a step closer to power. They should ask themselves whether they really want to do the same here.

[Dr Coffey]

I thank the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Melanie Onn) for her questions about the business. I also extend my birthday wishes to the hon. Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds) and the Leader of the Opposition, and to my hon. Friends the Members for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) and for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish).

I congratulate the 20 Members who won today’s ballot, particularly the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (John Nicolson). I feel somewhat sorry for their staff, because they are probably already fielding hundreds of emails and phone calls. Nevertheless, we look forward to their proposed legislation, which we will debate in due course.

The hon. Member for Great Grimsby talked about Europe. She and I are united on the matter: we both believe that Britain will be better off staying in a reformed EU. However, she overestimates the issue with regard to the Conservative party. We are absolutely united and are a one nation Government. The Scottish National party voted against the British people having their say, and the Labour party used to vote against it, but at least we agree that this important issue will be settled for a generation on 23 June. I look forward to the result.

Today we will conclude the debate on the Gracious Speech, which the House and the nation have welcomed as the next step in delivering security for working people, increasing life chances for the most disadvantaged and strengthening our national security. We have important Bills to finish—we will conclude our deliberations on the Investigatory Powers Bill next week—before we start our programme of 21 new Bills in our one nation Queen’s Speech, which will enable us to make further progress.

In the past six years, 31 million people have received a tax cut. Millions of young people are starting apprenticeships and getting into skilled work. The national living wage is benefiting 3 million workers, and more people are being given the chance to own their home. The Queen’s Speech builds on those measures and uses the opportunity of a strengthening economy to go further.

We will have a chance to debate measures including giving every household a legal right to a fast broadband connection, if they request it; reforming and speeding up the planning process to help build more homes; introducing a lifetime individual savings account to help young people save for their future; speeding up adoptions and giving children in care more support; making prisons places of education; and preventing radicalisation and tackling extremism. [Interruption.] Somebody said that we discussed that last week. Of course, we are still debating the Gracious Speech and we will discuss 21 Bills during this Session.

My right hon. Friend the Leader of the House is in the USA this week as part of a cross-party parliamentary delegation, further cementing the special relationship between our two countries, although I do not know whether he has met either presidential contender. I was also with an all-party parliamentary group this week on a visit to the Chelsea flower show, which is another marvellous institution. I visited a garden called “A Suffolk Retreat”, designed by Frederic Whyte in partnership with the Pro Corda Trust, which provides world-class ensemble training to exceptional musicians. I particularly want to mention it because it is based in my constituency. I really hope that we can bring the garden back to Suffolk.

While I was at the Chelsea flower show, I noticed the melinis flower and the melliodendron, which is lightly fragrant with pale pink fleshy flowers—very apt for the hon. Member for Great Grimsby. I do not know whether the shadow Leader of the House is also into gardening, but I suggest that he might like to christen a new variety of rhododendron the “Rhonddadendron”.

The hon. Member for Great Grimsby referred to several important pieces of legislation, and I suggest that she should be patient. We won the election last year and there are still four years of this Government to go. I am sure that, in due course, the Government will fulfil their commitment to some of the measures that she mentions.

It really matters to me that we try to achieve some cross-party consensus on the fact that we need more nurses. The Labour party led an important debate on the matter the other week. I thought that the approach was interesting, because we have a shared view on the outcome but have proposed different solutions for achieving it. The bursary route has limited the number of people who can become nurses. We are proposing a way in which more people can become nurses, and that will be good for our NHS. I am conscious of the fact that many people want to speak, so I will finish on that, and I look forward to further business questions.