Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Bone Excerpts

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do want to see the principle of subsidiarity get a fairer hearing at Strasbourg—that was in the speech I made at the Council of Europe about reform of the Court—so that it does not become a court of the fourth instance, whereby someone who has already been in front of a local court, a court of appeal and a supreme court in their country then comes to the ECHR. We do have proposals for reform. On what is debated in this House, we now have the Backbench Business Committee, which has an enormous number of days in this House—

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Not enough.

[The Prime Minister]

Not enough, I hear. It has more than enough in my view, and it can make over a day for that debate.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

To answer the right hon. Gentleman very directly, I was not aware of the individual case. There are hundreds of thousands of people who travel between Pakistan and Britain every year. We must have tough controls to prevent the abuse of our immigration system, but I suggest that he takes up the case individually with my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration, who has a superb grip on these issues and I am sure will be able to give him some satisfaction.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Under Tony Blair’s regime, we could sleep safely at night because we knew that Lord Prescott would take over if Tony Blair was incapacitated. What would happen if the Prime Minister were incapacitated?

[The Prime Minister]

I have been waiting for this question for some time, because I know that my hon. Friend has asked almost every Cabinet Minister, including the Deputy Prime Minister who, I think, replied that my hon. Friend seemed to have a morbid fascination with the end of the leader of the Conservative party. All I can say is that I have no plans to be incapacitated.