Points of Order
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(9 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving me notice of this point of order and informing the Members concerned. The courtesies apply to any visits made in an official capacity. I know that election fever has taken over, but I remind the House once again that, as I said on 29 November and 22 January, when a Member intends to visit another constituency other than in a private capacity, they should make every reasonable effort to inform the Member representing that constituency. Boundary changes do not take effect until the next election, and in the meanwhile we must observe the convention of not involving ourselves with other Members’ constituencies. I have had complaints from Members on both sides of the House. Please do the right thing and stick to the conventions that we expect each other to follow.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On Thursday 14 March, during business questions, in response to a question from the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney) about council spending, the Leader of the House said that Labour had a “legacy” of “vote-rigging” in Tower Hamlets. That is a false claim. I wonder if the right hon. Lady got her parties confused, as there was a widely reported case in 2015 in which the Election Commission and Richard Mawrey voided the mayoral election of 2014 under the Representation of the People Act 1983 on the grounds of corrupt and illegal practices, but that related to the activities of a party named Tower Hamlets First, and had nothing to do with Tower Hamlets Labour party or the national Labour party. Can you offer advice, Mr Speaker, on whether and when the Leader of the House can come to the House to set the record straight?
Business of the House
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(9 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Penny Mordaunt
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important point. The Royal Air Force Museum is amazing; I was there recently at the RAF gallantry awards dinner. At most times, such work would be very unfortunate for one of our most impressive national museums, but anniversaries coming up this year will mean more people will want to visit the museum, particularly to see the reconnaissance aircraft. This matter is devolved to the Mayor of London, but I know my hon. Friend has done service by getting the concerns of many people on the record. I will ensure the relevant Department has heard his concerns, to see what pressure can be brought to bear on Transport for London and the Mayor of London.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
The Budget means net tax cuts of £9 billion taking effect in an election year, but that is dwarfed by the £27 billion of tax increases that took effect last year and the £19 billion of tax rises that will come into effect after the general election, because of the actions of her party. The Chancellor has given with one hand and taken with the other. Does the Leader of the House think that her party is fooling anyone?
Penny Mordaunt
I encourage the hon. Lady to re-read the Chancellor’s Budget speech to see what progress we are making on growth and inward investment into this country. This year, our investment summit had a record amount of money being put into this nation, with more than £30 billion garnered in just that week. She will know that yesterday we had revised forecasts on returning to our target for inflation. These are tough times, but the plan is working, and we are determined to see hard-working families through.
Replacement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(2 years, 2 months ago)
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Penny Mordaunt
First, I fully appreciate the optics of my appearing at the Dispatch Box, but there is a very genuine reason why the Prime Minister is not here. I understand that people will wish to make political hay out of it. She would wish to be here, but she is unable to be here at the moment. The Chancellor will be along shortly to answer these questions.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
Last Friday, the value of the pound fell after the Prime Minister walked out of her press conference after just over eight minutes. Is it not increasingly the case that she and her Government are a risk to Britain’s financial stability? It is time she stopped shirking and turned up to be held accountable, or she should get out of the way and call a general election.
Penny Mordaunt
I stress again to all honourable colleagues that there is a very good reason why the Prime Minister is not here. The Chancellor will be making a statement shortly, when Members will be able to ask him these questions.
Speaker’s Statement
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(6 years ago)
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Mr Speaker
My answer to the last point is no, and my response to the hon. Gentleman—I thank him for his multi-faceted point of order—is as follows: there is absolutely no inconsistency whatsoever between Members rising to support the granting of a debate on the one hand and not choosing to participate in it on the other. There is no incongruity, there is no incompatibility, there is no inconsistency, there is no contradiction. I hope the hon. Gentleman, who is a most courteous and assiduous Member of this House, will accept that I am well familiar with the procedures of this House and I know of what I speak. The hon. Gentleman might think that that is odd or peculiar or that it offends his sensibilities in some way—and I am sorry if that is the case—but there is nothing wrong or procedurally improper about that at all. I am asked if I have an estimate of the number of Members: no, I am extraordinarily grateful to the hon. Gentleman for attributing to me powers that I do not possess, but I am not psychic.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This morning there was a knife attack in a surgery in my constituency and three people were attacked. Do you agree that instead of debating points of order about what was said earlier, we should draw a line under that and move on to the substantive issues that affect our constituencies, because otherwise people will rightly think that collective stupidity has taken hold of this House?
Mr Speaker
I thank the hon. Lady for what she has said and the sincerity with which I know she said it—I know all Members speak with sincerity. I hope we can shortly move on.
House of Lords Reform Bill
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(12 years, 5 months ago)
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Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
The Labour party has a long and proud history of standing up for our democratic rights—standing up for the rights of the people over the rights of the privileged few. As many of my right hon. Friends have mentioned, more than 100 years ago, the 1910 Labour manifesto recognised the need for change in the House of Lords. At that time, the House of Lords was not just unelected, but filled with hereditary peers. The only claim to power those people exerted was a belief in their right to rule due simply to birth. Under the previous Labour Government, we removed 90% of the hereditary peers, and I am incredibly proud of that important achievement. It is one of many achievements that were part of that reform process.
As the mother of Parliaments, Britain has been at the forefront of democratic reform, but it remains one of the few countries to appoint its second Chamber, in an approach seen by many internationally and in the UK as outmoded and lacking in legitimacy. Labour has been arguing for these changes for a very long time, because we believed then and we believe now that it is right that those who make our laws are accountable to the people. We believe that it is right that they should have a democratic mandate that empowers them to decide on the law of the land. That commitment continues, as reform of the House of Lords is just part of our project for rebuilding our politics. This is not a wholesale condemnation of Members of the House of Lords but instead a chance to renew and open up our politics, to learn from the problems of the past and build on what is good.
The House of Lords is just not fit for purpose. If we wish to call ourselves a modern democracy—I believe that all Members agree on that—we need a second Chamber that is fit for purpose. As many experts in this House have pointed out, the second Chamber plays a vital role as a constitutional safeguard, so it is crucial to have a second Chamber that represents the people of Britain—a Chamber that looks like the people it seeks to speak for.
Some 70% of the Members of the second Chamber are explicitly party political, which somewhat undermines the argument that the Lords are independent from the political process. As others have pointed out, many important sectors of our society remain under-represented. I am thinking about those from the fields of education and policing, and the lack of people from working-class backgrounds. Diversity is not a quality we could honestly attribute to the other place; it is not great here, but it is improving. Only 22% of the peers are women, ethnic minority representation remains low and the average age in the other place is 68. All that in a Chamber that is one of the largest in the world, with more than 800 Members.
The Lords still does not have the diversity that it ought to have. House of Lords reform could provide the chance to redress some of the imbalances, and not only in terms of diversity, because we could address some of the big questions raised in the debate today and yesterday about the major challenges of re-establishing trust in our political process and ensuring legitimacy. As many of my colleagues have said, this is an important opportunity to ensure that the House of Lords is fit for the 21st century and that this is genuinely about rebuilding trust in our political process. The debate we are having today and I hope we are likely to have in the coming weeks and months is about addressing some fundamental issues facing our constitution. That is why it is vital that we have proper time for discussion and debate and I am glad that the Government have decided to drop the programme motion. I hope that we will have more time for debate.
There are real, important issues about which Members feel passionately and that the country is observing closely, so it is vital that we do everything we can to ensure that House of Lords reform ensures democracy and is fit for this century. I will support the Bill and I encourage others to do the same.