Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Peter Bone Excerpts
Thursday 9th February 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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David Lidington Portrait Mr Lidington
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The programme motion was very clear that there was provision for a Report stage. Whether there would be debating time for one would, as always, depend on whether amendments had been carried and on how long the House wished to continue to debate the amendments in Committee ahead of a Report stage.

Peter Bone Portrait Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
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I should like to wish the hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) a happy birthday. He has been an outstanding parliamentarian. I should also like to thank him for inspiring me. I was once his constituent, and his antics drove me to run for Parliament. I thank him for that. Does the Leader of the House accept that this Parliament works because we have two Houses? Sometimes the other place does not agree with us, which annoys the Government, but that is no reason whatever to threaten it with abolition. May we have a statement from the Leader of the House to confirm that?

David Lidington Portrait Mr Lidington
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The Government’s position is that we completely respect the constitutional role of the House of Lords. As I said earlier, the House of Lords itself accepts that, as an unelected House, it needs to abide by certain conventions.