Racism in Football

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Tuesday 15th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Ah yes, a Manchester City fan; I call Mike Kane.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

And very proud of Raheem Sterling I am, too.

I wish to carry on from the point made by the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) about what we are doing in our communities. I am desperately worried about alt-right groups targeting sports and gym clubs on the estates in my constituency with alt-right messaging. I am working with the global Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the organisation Initiatives of Change International to produce a toolkit for communities, so that they can improve cohesion and combat such messages. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the project?

Health Infrastructure Plan

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Monday 30th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The words “cheeky chappy” could have been invented to describe the hon. Gentleman, and I am sure that that is something in which he takes great pride, among many other things.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

As a Mancunian MP, I am absolutely sickened to see Members on the Government Benches today. If you will forgive the personal pronoun, you should be in Manchester spending your hard-earned wages on our economy. [Interruption.] I was just trying to take the toxicity out of the place.

The NHS is a devolved matter in Greater Manchester, but NHS financial technicalities are holding back the redevelopment of the wonderful Wythenshawe Hospital in my constituency. Will the Minister meet me to discuss those technicalities?

Emergency Summit on Knife Crime

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Friday 22nd March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Strictly speaking, Government make a judgment about whether they can provide an answer. It is not a matter of order on which the Chair can adjudicate. That said, if I understood the hon. Gentleman’s point of order and he has previously been given an indication in a Committee sitting of average waiting times, it seems not unreasonable that he should then put down a question seeking to ascertain the facts on that matter. Therefore, my advice to him is really twofold. First, at the risk of irritating the House, I would repeat my general advice in matters of this kind: persist, man. Persist. Persist. Keep asking the question. The hon. Gentleman might wish to put it in a different way—or possibly even to a different Department, although I doubt it—and to try to persuade the Minister, perhaps privately, of the reasonableness of the inquiry. Beyond that, it is open to the hon. Gentleman to seek to use freedom of information legislation to secure the response that hitherto has been denied to him. I hope that he will profit from my counsels and that it will not be necessary for him to raise the matter again, but if it is, I am sure that he will.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your advice. This morning my Manchester staff had to be escorted into their office by a representative of Greater Manchester police. In the last few days, they have had to meet in a local coffee shop in Wythenshawe town centre to be escorted to the office by the town centre security guards. Is this not a time to make it clear that violence and threats to MPs and their staff are completely unacceptable in a parliamentary democracy?

[Mr Speaker]

It certainly is a time to make that clear, and I imagine that the proposition that the hon. Gentleman has just put to me in the Chair would be endorsed by every single Member of this House. We should try to remember, in this matter as in others, the precepts of “Erskine May”. Moderation and good humour in the use of parliamentary language conduce to the best possible debate.

Parliamentary democracy is of the essence, and even though our system here in this country is not always enormously admired by those who write about it, the reality, as I know from travelling around the world and as other colleagues can testify, is that it is enormously admired by people in countries across the globe. The British parliamentary system is constantly imitated—great attempts are made to emulate the best practice that we apply—and it has been sustained for the very good reason that, as Churchill put it in a slightly different context, democracy might be a lousy form of government, except for all the others. It is superior to any of the alternatives, and at the heart of it is the notion that the Member of Parliament is a representative, sent here to do his or her duty, including to exercise judgment as to what to say and how to vote.

The notion that anyone should be threatened with violence because of his or her beliefs or parliamentary conduct is anathema. It cannot stand, because if such an attitude were to stand, that would sound the death knell for democracy, so every effort must be made, and it is made by those who look after us on the estate, and in some cases provide us with assistance—in security terms—in our constituencies. We must all be prudent in the way that we go about our business, but democracy will persist, and it should persist, because it is the best.

Speaker’s Statement: New Zealand Terror Attacks

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Friday 15th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)]

I stand in solidarity with all those who have spoken, and I thank you, Mr Speaker, for your words. I have the great honour and privilege of representing a constituency where there is a large faith community of many faiths. I want to say to the Muslims in my constituency, as Jacinda Ardern said this morning to Muslims in New Zealand: we are you, and you are us, and this hatred is not us; it is not for us. I know the pain that my Muslim constituents will feel. The thought that people could walk into a place of prayer and face this is unbearable. It will give my constituents comfort that you have extended your thoughts to them, Mr Speaker, and that the Security Minister is attending to this. I wish to add my thanks to him and ask him to do everything he can to ensure that those in mosques across this country feel safe not just today but forever, and that they are welcome, because they are us and we are them.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

On behalf of the Labour party and Opposition Members, I wholeheartedly concur with the Minister and all Members who have expressed their deepest sympathies to those in New Zealand. As you said, Mr Speaker, we should all stand shoulder to shoulder with the Government of New Zealand, the people of New Zealand and Muslims there, here and across the world. The Jewish theologian Martin Buber said that solidarity cannot be found in a mosque, synagogue or temple, but is found in the space between people. It is the duty of all of us, in every legislature across the planet, to reduce the space between people so that the great Abrahamic religions can operate in peace together across the world.

[Mr Speaker]

Thank you.

Points of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Monday 12th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the hon. Member for giving me notice that she wished to raise this matter on a point of order, and I trust that she also informed the Secretary of State of her intention to do so. The hon. Lady has made her view clear and it is on the record. If the Secretary of State believes that she has inadvertently misled the House she can, and in those circumstances should, take steps to correct the record. It may be—I put it no more strongly—that she takes a different view of the matter.

Perhaps I can say, without fear of contradiction by any Member of the House, that it is not uncommon for Members to interpret the facts of a matter in different ways. I am grateful to the hon. Lady.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. As you will be aware, Asia Bibi, a Christian, has been on death row for eight years after a conviction for blasphemy that was recently quashed by the High Court in Pakistan. Weekend press reports have suggested that Asia and her husband applied to the UK for asylum but were turned down because of security fears if she were to come here. If that is true, it is an astonishing admission to be given to the press, not to the House. Have you had any indication that the Home Office or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will make a statement to the House about this matter this week?

[Mr Speaker]

It is open for a Minister to do so.

In response to the hon. Gentleman, I take the opportunity to observe that I am not aware that a Minister plans to come to the House to make a statement on this matter. However, I believe this matter has crossed my desk before, and Members have expressed interest in it. He will know that there are means open to him to ensure that the matter is discussed in the Chamber. I offer him no guarantee of that, but in lieu of and, if you will, as a backstop against the unwillingness to volunteer a ministerial statement—yes, I know we do not want to talk too much about backstops—it is perfectly open to him to deploy that device, and the same goes for other Members.

Points of Order

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

1st reading: House of Commons
Monday 26th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Far be it from me to rain on the hon. Gentleman’s parade after he has shown such considerable ingenuity and sense of humour to raise this matter. The convention, of course, applies only to visits that are undertaken on official business, but I am glad the hon. Gentleman has raised this matter. I am pleased to say that, so far, no Member of Parliament representing a Manchester constituency has been so unkind as to raise with me the fact of my own team’s defeat at Wembley yesterday.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

I hope that I have not brought on a trickle, still less a flood. I was admiring the forbearance and courtesy of the hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Mike Kane). I hope that he is enjoying his day, possibly more than I have been enjoying mine.

Bill Presented

Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Secretary Greg Clark, supported by the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Secretary Chris Grayling, Secretary Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom and Claire Perry, presented a Bill to make provision for the imposition of a cap on rates charged to domestic customers for the supply of gas and electricity; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 168) with explanatory notes (Bill 168-EN).

Devolution (Implications for England)

Debate between John Bercow and Mike Kane

Tuesday 16th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Oh, what a delicious choice. I call Mr Wayne David.