House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill Debate

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Department: Leader of the House
Baroness Smith of Basildon Portrait Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
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The noble Lord has tabled an amendment and is offering it at this point now, although, had he been in the House when this was debated, I doubt he would have voted differently at the time from the leader of his party, who was very much against it.

Lord Mancroft Portrait Lord Mancroft (Con)
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My Lords—

Baroness Smith of Basildon Portrait Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
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My Lords, I will take one more intervention. I have listened with great care to noble Lords and have not intervened on anybody, and I want to respond to those who have spoken. I will take the intervention from the noble Lord because he used to be quite nice to me, but that will be the last intervention that I take. I think it is in the interests of the House for me to wind up the debate.

Lord Mancroft Portrait Lord Mancroft (Con)
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I am most grateful to the noble Baroness the Leader of the House and I hope I will continue to be nice to her. I just wanted to make the point that, although the opportunity may have been available to the House of Lords to pass the Grocott Bill in the previous Parliament, it would not have gone through because it could not possibly have got through the House of Commons.