Business of the House

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Thursday 28th May 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Will the Leader of the House give us the business for next week?

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Chris Grayling)]

Mr Speaker, I wonder if I might take the liberty first of congratulating you on your re-election to the Chair and of welcoming all new Members to the House, where I hope they will feel they can make a fruitful and purposeful contribution.

The business for next week is as follows:

Monday 1 June—Continuation of the debate on the Gracious Speech, on the subject of Britain in the world.

Tuesday 2 June—Continuation of the debate on the Gracious Speech. The subject will be health and social care.

Wednesday 3 June—Continuation of the debate on the Gracious Speech, on the subject of devolution and growth across Britain.

Thursday 4 June—Conclusion of the debate on the Gracious Speech. The subject will be the economy.

Friday 5 June—The House will not be sitting.

The provisional business for the week commencing 8 June will include:

Monday 8 June—Second Reading of the Scotland Bill.

Tuesday 9 June—Second Reading of the European Union Referendum Bill.

Wednesday 10 June—Opposition day (1st allotted day). There will be a debate on an Opposition motion. Subject to be announced.

Thursday 11 June—Second Reading of a Bill to be announced.

Friday 12 June—The House will not be sitting.

It might also be helpful if I inform Members of the planned dates for the future Adjournments of the House and for sitting Fridays in the coming Session. The House will rise at close of play on Tuesday 21 July for the summer recess and will return on Monday 7 September. The House will rise for the conference recess on Thursday 17 September and return on Monday 12 October. The House will rise for a short recess on 10 November and return on Monday 16 November. We will rise for the Christmas recess on Thursday 17 December and return on Tuesday 5 January, and we will rise for the February half-term recess on Thursday 11 February and return on Monday 22 February.

The proposed dates for sitting Fridays in the coming Session are: 11 September, 16 October, 23 October, 30 October, 6 November, 20 November, 4 December, 22 January, 29 January, 5 February, 26 February, 4 March and 11 March.

It might also be of interest to Members to know that I intend to bring to the House the motion allocating the Chairs of Select Committees to parties next week, in order to allow the process for the election of Chairs to proceed. I expect the debate to take place next Wednesday.

[Ms Eagle]

I thank the new Leader of the House for announcing next week’s business, and I would like to congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your re-election last week. I concur with the remarks you made yesterday in welcoming all new Members, congratulating Members who held their seats and commiserating with former colleagues who were defeated. As you rightly said, Mr Speaker, politics can sometimes be a bruising experience.

This is the most diverse Parliament ever, with a record number of women, LGBT, black and ethnic minority Members. The Parliament also contains those from other minorities such as the Liberal Democrats. I note—[Interruption.] Well, apparently they are not here at all, but I am sure everyone will get what I mean. I note that in the race to elect a successor to the former Deputy Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat candidates need the backing of 10% of their MPs. That should be easy, as by my calculations one Liberal Democrat currently constitutes 12.5%, and apparently they can nominate themselves.

Yesterday’s Humble Address was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It was a legislative programme couched in fluffy soundbites, barely disguising a triumphalist Thatcherite agenda. The Prime Minister had the temerity to promise a one nation approach just weeks after he ran the most divisive election campaign in years, pitting one part of the UK against another. He claimed in his legislative programme that he would help working people get on, but his plans amount to a shamelessly partisan attack on workers’ rights and representation. As Her Majesty’s official Opposition, we will look beyond the rhetoric to the reality of this Queen’s Speech and hold this Government to account.

Today’s written ministerial statement from the Leader of the House listed the Bills announced yesterday. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving us the details of the length of the Session and the sitting dates, but we do not yet know what the mysterious Bill is that we are due to discuss on Thursday 11 June. Will he enlighten us now—or at least tell us when he will make that announcement?

On 9 June, I note that we are to debate the Second Reading of the European Union Referendum Bill. The Prime Minister has been desperately flying around European capitals trying to conduct negotiations on reforms that he has so far failed to specify in any great detail. Will the Leader of the House tell us whether the Government have already ruled out treaty change as an option, because it has been dismissed by European leaders? Will Eurosceptic Cabinet Ministers such as himself be allowed to remain in government if they campaign to leave the EU against the wishes of the Prime Minister?

I would like to welcome the new Chief Whip to his place. I see that he has already broken the bad habits of his immediate predecessor by actually deigning to turn up for business questions. I hope the new Chief Whip will be as effective in his job as the last one was!

I also welcome the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) to his new post. Given that an eagle is a predator and a powerful emblem used by countries across the globe, I thought I would honour the right hon. Gentleman’s arrival by looking up what a grayling is. The dictionary defines it as “a small grey fish frequently used as bait”—[Laughter.] With that in mind, I look forward to working with him.

I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman has learned many lessons from his time as Justice Secretary that he can apply in his new brief: tougher sentences for repeat offenders could be applied to the recidivists already lurking on the Government Back Benches; he is well acquainted with those pesky peers because they have defeated him so many times already; and given his record on banning books in prisons, I just hope he is not let anywhere near the House of Commons Library.

As we get business under way, we are all coming to terms with the election results. Apparently, with the Chancellor having promised to give Lynton Crosby a proper French kiss if the Tories got a majority, he has managed to deliver only a desultory peck on the cheek. This is, I am sure, one of the first of many broken Tory election promises.

The leader of the Green party has achieved her dream of making it to Parliament by taking a job as a junior researcher. The Scottish National party has taken to trying to occupy our Front Benches, but I think SNP Members have taken quite enough seats already!

[Chris Grayling]

First, let me say that I look forward very much to the weekly jousts that the hon. Lady and I shall have across the Chamber. She may be an eagle, and the grayling may indeed be a fish, but I should add that the grayling is often caught by a number of my colleagues on the Back Benches who enjoy spending the afternoon on a river bank. However, I look forward to proving that the fish can indeed prove mightier than the eagle.

As for the hon. Lady’s comments about the general election results and, in particular, about the Liberal Democrats, I am not sure that in her position I would be boasting about having reduced representation in the Chamber. I am not only delighted that a number of my colleagues vanquished their Liberal Democrat opponents at the election, but especially pleased that a number of my new colleagues beat sitting Labour Members. I am very proud of what they have achieved, and very proud to see them here. Along with all my colleagues, I congratulate them on those extraordinary results, and on the success that they have brought to their constituencies.

I must also tell election buffs that there will be no shortage of elections this summer. We have had a general election, but we now have the Labour leadership campaign and the Labour deputy leadership campaign. My colleagues may not have seen the hon. Lady’s campaign slogan, which is “We want Angela”. We must wait and see whether the Labour party does indeed want Angela, but I wish her the best for her campaign. It is a crowded field —of seven, I believe—and I wait with interest to see how successful she will be. She has all our good wishes.

I should point out to the hon. Lady that the “triumphalist Thatcherite agenda” she described won the general election. Given that she claims to be a champion of equalities, it is always a shame to hear her make disparaging comments about Britain’s first woman Prime Minister—something this party is immensely proud of.

Our party’s position on the European referendum is absolutely clear. We campaigned for a European referendum during the general election, and we will deliver a European referendum. By contrast, the Labour party campaigned against a European referendum, although its temporary leader appears now to have decided that Labour will support it. My question is this: do all the leadership candidates support it? We shall find out in the months ahead, but better a sinner that repent. The people of this country want a vote on Europe, and we will deliver it.

The hon. Lady asked what Bill we were to debate in two weeks’ time. She will discover that during next week’s business questions, and I look forward to continuing our jousts then.