Prime Minister's Update

Sandy Martin Excerpts

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sandy Martin (Ipswich) (Lab)]

I must confess that I am somewhat confused, so I am asking the Prime Minister for a bit of guidance here. Quite a large amount of legislation was lost—or would have been lost if Parliament had been prorogued. That included measures that I think could quite easily have got through, the most obvious example being the Domestic Abuse Bill. At the same time, we have a Prime Minister who does not have an overall majority and an Attorney General who says that this is a dead Parliament and we need a general election. I agree with the leader of my party that we need a general election and to get rid of the current Government, when it is safe to do so, but if we are to have a general election, a new Parliament and a new Government, what on earth is the point of a Queen’s Speech? Why would the Prime Minister prorogue Parliament and have a Queen’s Speech just before going to the country, except as a ploy to use the Queen to promote his manifesto?

[The Prime Minister]

As I have said many times to the House, I do not want an election. It is open to the hon. Gentleman to try to persuade his colleagues to vote for a Queen’s Speech and the progressive measures we will introduce, including on domestic abuse and domestic violence, but if he will not do that, the logical thing to do is to go to the country in a general election. But there are hesitations about doing that on the Opposition Front Bench, for reasons that I obviously understand.