House of Lords Reform Bill

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 3rd September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Since we are trading quotes, I remind the hon. Lady that she—[Interruption.] I will answer the question. She said on her website that we should not be wasting our time on constitutional reform—of almost any description, I think—that is not going to improve the life of a single person in the United Kingdom. I have the transcript of the meeting of the Select Committee in April this year. As she knows, I also said in my exchange with her that we were

“trying to press forward”

on all the issues in our constitutional and political reform package, and that

“I think we are successfully doing so—in keeping with the commitments we both made, both coalition parties, in the Coalition Agreement.”

I made it clear, therefore, that this was an overall approach to a package of measures which we had both entered into solemnly in the coalition agreement. Most people in the country would think it perfectly reasonable that when one party to such an agreement decides to pick and choose the measures that it will support, it is right for the other party to say, “Well, in that case we will need to pick and choose a bit ourselves so that we can continue with the rest of the very important work that this coalition Government are doing.”

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Why does the right hon. Gentleman not just admit that it is obvious from their response today that his new friends in the Tory party have never been serious about Lords reform, and that on this, as on the alternative vote referendum, he has been badly let down by his friend the Prime Minister? Why did he not offer a referendum, which may have eased the passage of the Bill through both Houses?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I did suggest, in the latter stages of the discussions within the Government, that we should hold a referendum on election day in return for delaying both the first elections to the House of Lords to 2020 and the first boundary changes coming into effect in 2020, but that was not a position that found favour with my coalition partners on this occasion. The hon. Gentleman points a finger at Conservative Members about their commitment to political and constitutional reform, yet Labour has in many respects been a whole lot more cynical and insincere, claiming that Labour Members are fervent supporters of House of Lords reform and, as I explained earlier, refusing to will the means and talking only about the ends.

Rio+20 Summit

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 26th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

That is one of the issues that were raised forcefully by many of the leaders from Africa. I had a meeting with President Meles of Ethiopia, who is a leading thinker on all these matters. He recognises, in a way that I think is pretty far-sighted, that notwithstanding the challenges that his people now face, he will be doing a disservice to them and, indeed, to future generations of Ethiopians if they do not use the resources that are available to them in a sustainable fashion.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

The hon. Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith) was right to identify as particularly depressing the total failure to make any progress on the second biggest environmental issue that affects us—the need to protect our marine environment—but would not Britain have more credibility in terms of leadership if we were not already two years behind in establishing our own network of marine protected areas, and if the Government had not drastically reduced their number so as to render them almost useless?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I think that it was right for us to take the extra time to secure a firm evidence base in regard to those areas. We are not abandoning the agenda; we are trying to do our job as thoroughly and rigorously as I know the right hon. Gentleman would expect.

Regional Pay

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 20th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I will come on to deal with some of the evidence that backs up his point.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

This is not just a cause for concern in Scotland, Wales and the northern regions of England. There is also deep concern in the south-west, where we have the biggest gap between wages and house affordability. Any regional pay structure is bound to involve a huge transfer of public money from regions such as the south-west to the wealthy south-east, and that is exactly the opposite of what the Government should be doing.

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention. Indeed, a 1% pay reduction for public sector workers in the south-west would cost that region £140 million a year.

If the Government were to achieve their objective of reducing pay to what they say is the equivalent in the private sector, a real-terms cut in pay, year after year for a decade or more, would be needed. It is no wonder, then, that people are worried and are calling on the Government to come clean on what their plans really are. It is no wonder that people think this is a deliberate attack on public sector workers and on the parts of the country that have already been hardest hit by the recession.

Ministerial Code (Culture Secretary)

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 30th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is entirely right. It is worth examining for a second what would happen if the independent adviser was commissioned to set off down a process of factual discovery. He would have to look at all the information that is about to be provided and is being provided to the Leveson inquiry, which would literally duplicate the findings of fact and would literally be prejudging what the judge himself will be judging.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has just claimed again that in relation to the BSkyB bid, the Government sought independent advice and followed it “at every stage”. Will he confirm that on 31 December 2010, Ofcom advised the Government to refer the bid to the Competition Commission and that the Government did not do that, so what he has just said to this House—they both said it last week—is simply not true?

[The Prime Minister]

I have to say to the right hon. Gentleman that he ought to know that we were acting in accordance with a law passed by his Government, the Enterprise Act 2002. That Act requires consideration of the company’s representations in terms of reference to the Competition Commission. If that is not taken into account, the matter could be subject to a judicial review. What I said, and what the Secretary of State said, which is that each stage he took independent advice and followed that advice, is correct.

Party Funding

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

The problem with what my hon. Friend suggests is that, as the Deputy Prime Minister has set out, it is simply not realistic at the moment to propose that we should significantly increase the amount of state funding for political parties. Having a set of reforms of the nature set out by Sir Christopher Kelly’s committee is absolutely dependent on increasing state funding, which I do not think anyone in this House will feel comfortable proposing to their constituents.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

If this is not about cash for access, could I bring a pensioner and a working parent from Exeter to see the Prime Minister, at Downing street or Chequers, so that he can explain why he cut taxes for millionaires but clobbered them with a granny tax and a cut in family tax credits?

[Mr Maude]

I am sure that if the right hon. Gentleman proposes that, it will receive due consideration.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

I would caution my hon. Friend a little on this point. After all, we are going to invest a considerable amount of time on individual electoral registration, as we have in this Session on the plans for boundary changes—things about which he and his colleagues on the Government Benches feel equally strongly. I think it is perfectly possible to do more than one thing at once in government.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

When the Deputy Prime Minister talks to the bishops and the archbishops about their futures, will he gently remind them that the overwhelming majority in Parliament, in the country and in the Church of England want women to be able to become bishops, and that it might not be in the interests of the House of bishops to try to amend or water down the current measure before Synod this week?

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure that that question refers to membership of the upper House by women bishops. I am sure that that is what the right hon. Member meant.

Informal European Council

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right. At the end of the day, we have to decide whether we are going to agree to this treaty or not. The fact is that every European country had to make that decision, and we have made ours. I repeat that it is in our national interest for the eurozone to deal with its problems, to keep this treaty focused on fiscal union and then to maximise the potential of the single market. I think that Britain should be relaxed about being in those parts of Europe where we want action—just as we are a leading member of NATO, and just as we led that action in Libya—but that we should quite happily stay out of areas that we do not feel are in our interests, such as the Schengen no-borders agreement or the euro.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given that Germany grew 3% last year, and has its lowest unemployment for 20 years and more manufacturing and a smaller pay gap than Britain, why is the Prime Minister so against the practice of worker representation on company boards?

[The Prime Minister]

One of the points about Germany is that it did not spend the last decade making its economy unbalanced with a massive boom and a massive bust. The right hon. Gentleman is right to raise the IMF forecasts, however, because they are very instructive about what is happening in Europe this year. They are actually forecasting higher growth for Britain than for almost any other country in the European Union, but they have made very chilling forecasts for countries such as Spain and Italy, for which they are forecasting quite a steep decline.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Maude]

I simply pray in aid what Lord Hutton, the former Labour Pensions Secretary, said yesterday, when he referred to public sector trade unions “holding a gun” to the taxpayer’s head. He said that the offer was generous and that it was hard

“to envisage a better offer being made.”

I hope that we can now move quickly to resolve the final, outstanding issues, so that we can move on without further disruption to people’s lives.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given that the Minister’s Department is currently the worst in Whitehall for meeting the Government’s business plan targets—targets for which he is responsible—having missed 38 at the last count, would his time not be better spent sorting out his own Department, rather than picking fights with public sector unions?

[Mr Maude]

The short answer is that we want to get these public sector pension issues resolved quickly. I would be quite interested to know whether the right hon. Gentleman shares our belief—and that of Lord Hutton, his former colleague—that we are talking about a generous offer that the trade unions should accept, and that they should stop “holding a gun” to the taxpayer’s head. Does he agree with that?

EU Council

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 12th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

International investors know that Britain has the advantage of being a member of the single market, but outside the eurozone and the euro. I would say to the hon. Gentleman that the greatest risk for Britain would be to go into a treaty, including a new treaty of the 17 at the EU level, that did not safeguard our interests. Of course I would rather that our protocol had been accepted and that those protections and safeguards had been put in place; they were not, so the greater danger would have been to go ahead with a treaty without those safeguards.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given that Britain has, or perhaps had, many natural friends and allies in the rest of Europe, why does the Prime Minister think he failed to persuade a single one of them of his case?

[The Prime Minister]

There is great understanding of Britain’s interests in the European Union and great support for our backing of the single market, particularly among countries like Holland, Sweden and Germany and the Baltic states. We have just achieved a breakthrough deal—something the right hon. Gentleman never achieved in all his years in government—of a freeze in the EU budget. Britain did that by having allies and supporters in the EU who backed our move.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 11th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

This issue clearly divides opinion—within parties, I suspect, as well as across them. I am personally persuaded that, in this day and age, if an 18-year-old can vote there is no reason in principle why a 16-year-old cannot. My hon. Friend has marshalled some of the arguments and examples about why he would argue the counter-case. The issue is not in the coalition agreement; it is not a Government policy as such, and no doubt we will continue to debate it.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given his earlier answers, what does the Deputy Prime Minister think the independent adviser on ministerial standards is for?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The adviser’s duties are clearly set out. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will accept that asking the most senior civil servant in Whitehall to conduct a thorough investigation and produce a report is something that his previous Government did on numerous occasions and is entirely in keeping with a proper response to the very serious concerns that have been raised.