Business of the House

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I absolutely recognise the severe impact of covid restrictions on tourism and hospitality, which is why the Government have provided a range of targeted measures to see the sector through this period. On top of the wider economic support package, the Government have provided business rates relief and one-off grants for eligible hospitality and leisure businesses, and VAT has been cut from 20% to 5% for tourism and hospitality activities until the end of March. The Government are committed to working with the sector to develop a tourism recovery plan, which will ensure that the UK’s tourism industry can build back better and warmly welcome visitors to all parts of the UK as soon as it is safe to do so. My hon. Friend may want to have a word with the chairman of the Conservative party, my right hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Amanda Milling), and lobby her to get the party conference back to Blackpool. I know that many people enjoyed it greatly when it used to be held there.

[Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab) [V]]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish you and all the staff of the House a very happy, peaceful and healthy new year.

Given the current escalation in the pandemic due to the new covid strain, and given that we as Members of the House have been encouraged to keep ourselves and parliamentary staff safe by working remotely, when will we move back to online voting? Now that we have got Brexit done—allegedly—is it not time for the House of Commons to level up with the other place and resume electronic voting? After all, the system is shovel-ready.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

In wishing the hon. Lady a happy new year, I congratulate her on her ability to get Brexit slogans into her question. This is almost a bingo game that we can play at future business questions to see who can get the most into any one question.

I am sorry to disappoint the hon. Lady, but the proxy system works extremely well, and it is robust. As we all know, the House of Lords system failed, and if it had failed on a crucial occasion such as today, that would have caused a real problem. I do not think we want to model ourselves on the House of Lords in this instance. It is interesting quite how many people are currently voting in the House of Lords—it is many more than normal.