Business of the House

Richard Graham Excerpts

Thursday 10th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

My hon. Friend underlines a point made by other London MPs who are concerned that the infrastructure of the capital should be improved. I commend the Mayor of London and the former Secretary of State for Transport for the agreement that they reached on a settlement going up to 2014-15, which will enable a capital programme of some size to go ahead. That capital programme would be affected if the revenue stream that the Mayor has anticipated were to be eroded, and all Londoners would suffer a disbenefit because the improvements that they are looking forward to would not take place.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

This week, the Muslim festival of Eid is celebrated. I was delighted last night to accompany a Muslim community leader from my constituency to No. 10 Downing street to celebrate the festival, and to hear from the British Army’s Muslim chaplain a moving description of his months with the international security assistance force in Afghanistan, and his praise of it. Does the Leader of the House agree that the role and contribution of British Muslims in our armed forces in rebuilding Afghanistan is under-appreciated? Will he help me identify an opportunity for Members to hear from our Army’s Muslim chaplain directly?

[Sir George Young]

I can accede to my hon. Friend’s request, somewhat unusually. If he stays in his place for about two minutes, he will have an opportunity to take part in a debate on armed forces personnel. I cannot think of a better debate in which he could participate in order to make the point that he has just so eloquently touched on.