Business of the House

Peter Bone Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

One of the great myths in this country is that manufacturing collapsed under a Conservative Government. In fact, it was during the 13 years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that manufacturing in this country fell by almost a half as a proportion of our national income. We have spent the past five years trying to turn that around. I am very pleased that this country now makes more cars than the whole of Italy. There is a lot still to do—we have a lot of mess to clear up—but people should not think that the problems of our trade deficit and our manufacturing sector were caused by Conservative Members; we are the ones who are trying to fix them.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Next Thursday we will debate the European Union Referendum Bill in a Committee of the whole House, but unfortunately, if the Government make two statements, and if there also happens to be an Urgent Question, we would have only two and a half hours to debate the Bill, which means that we would only have time to discuss the first group of amendments. Could the Leader of the House make a statement next week to change the situation so that we can go past the moment of interruption in order to discuss the second group of amendments? Could he also try to ensure that no Government statements will curtail debate on that very important Bill in a week’s time?

[Chris Grayling]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns. It is very important that the House has a full opportunity to debate the Bill. There is already a considerable amount of time available in the system for that, but I want to make sure that hon. Members on both sides of the House feel they have a proper opportunity to debate the amendments.