Chris Bryant
Main Page: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda)Business without Debate
Chris Bryant Excerpts
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. The short answer is that the motion must be on the Order Paper and capable of being put to the House. That lies in the hands of the Government, so it is for a representative of the Executive to table that motion. I have no knowledge of when that will be. It may well be soon. What I do know is that a significant number of people on both sides of the House are keen for it to progress, but there can be opposition to it or attempted amendment of it, and that could happen. There must be every prospect of the matter coming to the House in the near future.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On the previous motion that was not moved, is it your understanding that we will now be sitting next Monday and next Tuesday? It would be quite convenient for Members and for the House to know whether we are going to be sitting. I presume that the only way in which we might not be sitting is if the Government were to move a similar motion tomorrow evening and there were to be no objection. However, if there were an objection, the objection would be able to be taken only on a deferred Division in September, by which time we would obviously already not have sat or sat—who knows what we might or might not have done? What is your view of these rather rum proceedings?
Mr Speaker
My strong sense is that, the motion not having been moved, the status quo applies, which is that this House will not only sit tomorrow and Thursday but it is to be expected that it will indeed sit on Monday and Tuesday of next week, as had always previously been the intention. The hon. Gentleman, with a cheeky grin, speculatively raises the issue of whether the motion might be put tomorrow instead, and I suppose all things are possible, but some people might think that once bitten.
I have no indication that the matter will be put to the House tomorrow. We always expected to sit until next Tuesday, which is what our electors would have expected. The Government were perfectly within their right, although it is pretty unusual, suddenly to suggest a change, but they appear to have thought again. Churchill said you can rat but it is quite difficult to re-rat.