Health

Peter Luff Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Peter Luff (Mid Worcestershire) (Con)]

I am sure it would be churlish of me to consider for a second that the speech by the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain) owes anything to his new-found interest in pensions following his decision to retire from this place at the next election. I am glad he is following my example, but I am sorry to hear that he will be lost to this place. I have not always agreed with him, but I have always liked and admired him. I am sure he will be missed by this House and by his constituents.

Last year, I had the honour to propose the Gracious Speech, a task ably performed this year by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt). Like me, she got her loudest laugh for a joke about genitalia, which probably says all one needs to know about this place.

I was tempted to tear up my prepared remarks—they are not on health, but on the health of our democracy—thanks to the rather shockingly partisan speech from the shadow Secretary of State. I will not be tempted down that path, but I will make one point on health. My father-in-law died over Christmas in a national health service hospital. He had spent nine weeks in two different hospitals on five different wards, always receiving outstanding medical care but never that full personal, human and true compassionate care that the Secretary of State spoke about in his opening remarks. I wish him every success in his campaign to drive compassionate care in the NHS, because it desperately needs it.

I hope it goes without saying that I strongly support the coalition Government and their achievements, so I shall pass over that section of my speech in the interests of the eight-minute limit. I will simply say this: the Queen’s Speech is not the most radical of recent times, but that is not necessarily a criticism. It contains good and worthwhile measures that I applaud warmly. Indeed, I think the desperate search by politicians for novelty, sometimes engendered by the 24-hour media questing sensation, can actually work against genuinely good government.

I want to set my remarks in the context of 2015, which is not just an election year but an important year for Parliament. It would have been good if the Gracious Speech had made at least passing mention of the fact that in 2015 we will celebrate two important anniversaries: 750 years since the de Montfort Parliament of 1265, and 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215. I know that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, have worked very hard with Sir Robert Worcester on the Magna Carta 800th Committee. Magna Carta embodies the principles that have underpinned the emergence of parliamentary democracy and the legal system in the UK and across the world: limiting arbitrary power, curbing the right to levy taxation without consent, holding the Executive to account and affirming the rule of law. De Montfort’s Parliament 50 years later flowed almost inevitably from just those principles.

I have the privilege to be the Commons Chair of the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on the 2015 anniversary, alongside Lord Bew from the House of Lords. These anniversaries provide a special opportunity for all of us in this place to engage the public in the history and purpose of our democracy. Parliament’s programme for 2015 will increase public understanding of the fact that Parliament’s work really matters to them, raising awareness of Parliament at work on a local level, particularly with young people. I hope hon. Members will participate in an initiative we are launching with individual schools in our constituencies later this year.

The celebration of and debate on Magna Carta and our emerging Parliament should serve to remind us of perhaps neglected fundamentals. Democracy is not just about voting once every four or five years for a local council, Parliament or the European Parliament. The first condition of democracy is the establishment of freedoms and rights in a society that can be upheld independently of the ruler or ruling elite. Voting comes next. That leads me to my three main concerns about the Queen’s Speech: the consequences for defence, liberty and the local experience of democracy.

On safety overseas, the Queen’s Speech said surprisingly little. My right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) made a powerful speech, saying many of the things I wished to say. In the year in which British troops end their combat mission in Afghanistan, we might have hoped for more on defence in the Gracious Speech. The UK has committed to spend 0.7% of GDP on international development. I welcome that, but why do the Government, who already spend more than 2% of GDP on defence in accordance with NATO guidelines, seem so reluctant to commit formally to this target? Why do they not do more to engage our European colleagues in meeting that target too? Why did the Queen’s Speech not say something about the preparatory work for the next strategic defence and security review? We need a debate on Britain’s place in the world, a debate that would inform the Scottish independence referendum and our relationship with the EU. An open debate ahead of the SDSR would be invaluable, and it would have been good to see a commitment to that in the Queen’s Speech.

On liberty, the Bill to strengthen the powers to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking is an excellent one to enact in the year of Magna Carta’s 800th anniversary. The work of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority has made a major contribution in my constituency to reducing the exploitation of those working in the farming and horticultural sectors, but much more remains to be done. I am proud to support a Government who are putting such an enlightened and important piece of legislation on the statute book. When we think of personal liberties, we should recall that of all Magna Carta’s many clauses only four remain on the statute book today. Two of those, clauses 39 and 40, are about no freeman being imprisoned except by the lawful judgment of his peers, and no one being denied justice.

I welcome the action on modern slavery, but I must sound a loud warning note on legal aid, for which further changes are planned in this Session, including secondary legislation on Crown court advocacy fees. We must recognise that access to justice is not just a Magna Carta right, but a fundamental part of our democracy. We cannot lecture authoritarian states on their lack of democracy if our own system is denying ancient rights to our citizens. If the state proceeds against an individual unreasonably, as has manifestly happened on several occasions recently, the individual should have the proper means to defend himself or herself against those proceedings. The legal aid bill is tiny: at £2 billion, it is just one-twelfth of the £24 billion housing benefit bill. In other words, an 8% saving in housing benefit would pay for the whole legal aid bill. This Parliament should be profoundly concerned that injustice will grow and families will suffer if deep cuts to legal aid are made. In the run-up to the commemoration of Magna Carta, we should be especially heedful of such things.

My final remarks perhaps reflect my deepest concern about democracy in our country. I end with one measure of direct relevance to my constituents and their sense of justice and fair play and the upholding of their democratic rights: the planning system. This one issue has done more to disillusion many of my constituents about the reality of local democracy than any other I am aware of. I agree we need to build more houses both nationally and locally. The three councils of south Worcestershire—Wychavon, Malvern Hills and Worcester City—agree with that view with passionate conviction, but I worry about exactly what is meant by the commitment in the Queen’s Speech to increase housing supply and home ownership by reforming the planning system.

A packed meeting at Badsey Remembrance hall on Friday was powerful evidence of the sense of betrayal that people in many parts of England feel about the collapse of local planning policies. Indeed, I believe my party has lost more voters to UKIP over this breakdown in planning than over the EU. At Friday’s meeting, attended by parish councils and residents from across the Vale of Evesham and throughout Wychavon, I told the audience about what was being done and our great success in building houses—some three times the national average in my constituency—in south Worcestershire. Our area is pulling its weight. We want to build houses in the quantities needed, but where local people believe they should be built and not where developers decide. It is the developers who have the whip hand in my constituency. Through no fault of my council, we are being punished for not having a local plan in place. The only reason we are late is that the Government failed to abolish the old top-down system of regional spatial strategies in good time. We followed Government policy, but we are being punished for doing so.

Wychavon district council wants to do the right thing and build the new homes that we need, but still the Planning Inspectorate makes it clear that it expects even more. The result is a demoralised district council and angry communities. All the inspectorate needs to do is say that planning permissions already granted will count against our target and commit to ensuring that our new local plan can be the test of new applications from developers now, not when it finally comes into effect.

At Badsey on Friday night I was given a bag of Vale of Evesham soil. The person who gave it to me wanted it to remind me of the valuable horticultural land being lost to unplanned development. It reminds me of much, much more: it is the soil of the county where the founder of our parliamentary democracy, Simon de Montfort, died. It stands for the liberty of the people. It is our sacred duty in this place to protect it.