Business of the House (Thursday)

Roberta Blackman-Woods Excerpts

Wednesday 8th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Hilary Benn]

My hon. Friend anticipates the very point that I will come to a little later in my speech.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that these are wide-ranging proposals that will completely restructure our university system and that five hours is simply not enough time to discuss these issues? Does this not also show that the opposition are running scared of a proper debate on this issue?

[Hilary Benn]

My hon. Friend of course refers to those Liberal Democrats who will vote against these proposals—but not enough will vote against them as far as the country is concerned.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hilary Benn]

That is indeed the case. Hon. Members are being denied that opportunity because the Government have chosen to put the cart before the horse.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

Does my right hon. Friend share my frustration that the Deputy Prime Minister came to my constituency the day before the election to reinforce his pledge not to raise tuition fees, but that because of the lack of time tomorrow I will not have the opportunity to challenge Liberal Democrat Members on why they are breaking that pledge?

[John Robertson]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. There seems to be a lot of chuntering from a Government Whip, making remarks about my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Roberta Blackman-Woods). Is that in order, and is he allowed to do it?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jones]

I note my hon. Friend’s wit, for which he is not famous. He has obviously worked very hard on that intervention, and I congratulate him. However, I will not go down that route.

“Erskine May” suggests that other purposes for such a motion might be

“To give precedence to specified business…on a particular day”,

“To provide for a Saturday sitting”,

or

“To provide for adjournment at a stated hour”

on a sitting day. As is eloquently laid out in “Erskine May”, the effect of motions such as the one before us is to limit discussion. In this case, it will limit discussion on a vital piece of legislation to five hours.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one thing that will make life difficult tomorrow for those of us who wish to speak on behalf of our constituents is that the context in which the statutory instrument sits is changing all the time? For example, today there were yet more changes concerning part-time fees. That makes it impossible to work through the impact of the changes.

[Mr Jones]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, representing a university city as she does. I remember working hard to get her elected in 2005, when we had to put up with more nonsense from the Liberal Democrats about tuition fees. No doubt my hon. Friend and I will remind them of that later this week when they are deciding how to vote.

--- Later in debate ---

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I sat assiduously through the earlier debate from 7 pm, hoping to raise issues on behalf of my constituents and the all-party parliamentary university group, but sadly I was prevented from doing so by the closure motion. I urge you to do as you usually do and seek to include as many Members as possible in tomorrow’s debate.

[Mr Speaker]

I shall do what I can in the circumstances. I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her application, on which I will not adjudicate.