Business of the House

Philip Davies Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that matter, which I will of course discuss with my right hon. and hon. Friends. On the short consultation, we have tried to ensure that we are able to press forward more rapidly; therefore, many of our consultations are not as long as they used to be. That the changes will be in the form of secondary legislation affords the House an opportunity to consider them, if necessary. I do not believe that the regulations will be considered under the affirmative procedure, but that does not mean that they cannot be the subject of consideration in this House if Members so choose.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

May we have a debate on immigration, particularly from within the EU? If there is one lesson that all parties need to learn from the recent elections, it is that the public are sick to the back teeth of open borders with the EU and unlimited immigration from within the EU. Surely the least that they can expect from this House is a debate on the subject, so that as we go into the general election, everybody’s constituents know where their Member of Parliament stands on the issue. If the Leader of the House wants to tie that in with a debate on who should be the next European Commissioner, I am happy to go along with that.

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend will be glad to know that he will have an opportunity to raise that issue in the debate on the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. During that debate, I hope it will be possible to make it plain how the Government have already acted, such that non-EU net migration is down by a third; non-EU migration is at the lowest level since the late 1990s; economic immigration from outside the EU is capped; for those from within the EU, jobseeker benefits are limited to just six months and entitlement to housing benefit has been removed; and EU migrants are barred from re-entry following removal. The Opposition and the Government share the view that it is important to enforce the minimum wage. We are increasing the maximum fine for payment below the minimum wage to £20,000 per employee.