Queen’s Speech (Date)

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

If one were to do that, it simply would not give the House adequate time to debate fully the programmes announced in the last Queen’s Speech.

[Ms Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central) (Lab)]

The Leader of the House has, in effect, announced today that the Government have abolished next year’s Queen’s Speech and given themselves an extra year to get through their legislation, including some very controversial Bills. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr MacShane) said, time is power. Of course any Government may expect a reasonable time in which to get their legislation through, but if they are unable to do so, that legislation must fall. Will the Leader of the House confirm that no Session of Parliament, whether in wartime or peacetime, over the past century and a half has lasted for two years?

May I, like my right hon. Friend, ask the Leader of the House to explain why he, as a Minister whose responsibility is to protect this House, chose to make such an important announcement in a written ministerial statement? His statement said that

“it would be appropriate to move towards five, 12-month, sessions over a Parliament”.

So why has he not implemented that by the simple arrangement of having the first of those five Sessions finishing in May 2011? Is it that the Leader of the House wanted to protect the rights of this House but was simply overruled by those who wanted simply to protect their legislation? Is this what happens if the Leader of the House is not in the Cabinet speaking up for the rights of this House? There has been no consultation with other parties and with Parliament on this. He says that he will enable time for consultation, but his statement says that

“the Government have decided that the current session of Parliament will”

continue; it did not say that consultation will take place on this.

The Government have made much of their “new politics” and of giving away power from the Executive to Parliament. So why is one of their first acts to give the Executive huge power by extending the time in which to get their legislation through? Does the Leader of the House not see that this is, in effect, an abuse of power? Will he, as my right hon. Friend asked him to do, withdraw his plans, consult Parliament properly and come back with proposals that respect Parliament and respect our democracy?

[Sir George Young]

If we were to do what the right hon. Lady has just proposed and were to end this Session in May next year, we would have to guillotine all the Bills in the programme, and I suspect she would be the first to object if we were to rush the programme through on that timetable. Secondly, I laid a written ministerial statement before the House; I did not make this announcement on the “Today” programme, which is something that we grew used to in the last Parliament. I think the right hon. Lady should welcome the extra time that is now being given to this year’s legislative programme, which contains some serious Bills and which will now get enough time to be debated.

May I also just remind the right hon. Lady and other Front-Bench Members of what they did when they came into office in 1997? Without any consultation or discussion, they told the House they were changing the frequency of Prime Minister’s questions from twice a week to once a week. We should contrast that with the 18-months’ notice I have given of this proposal, which is also subject to the passage of a Bill.