Standing Orders (Public Business)

Debate between Conor Burns and Chris Grayling

Thursday 22nd October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

My hon. Friend makes an important point: the public are on our side over this. It is perhaps a sign that we are in government and the Opposition are not that we are more in touch with what the public think.

[Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)]

Does the Leader of the House agree that these relatively modest proposals do something powerful, which is allow us to say to our constituents—I say this as a Member of Parliament born in Belfast but representing an English constituency—that in future there is no chance of the rest of the United Kingdom’s Members of Parliament imposing on them something that they do not want in England? The reason there is so much hostility from Scottish National party Members is that they realise this is a safety valve that will help to protect the future of the United Kingdom.

Business of the House

Debate between Conor Burns and Chris Grayling

Thursday 11th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Where we and the SNP differ is that in an increasingly unstable world, with a whole variety of new challenges, this does not seem to be a moment to scrap our nuclear deterrent. That is a point of difference and a point of principle between us, but Government Members stand by what we believe in.

[Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)]

Today is the deadline for the Planning Inspectorate to make a recommendation to Ministers at the Department of Energy and Climate Change after a long-running and hugely expensive public inquiry into the proposed Navitus Bay offshore wind farm. Will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate on whether it is appropriate for this proposal to remain confidential until the Secretary of State publishes her decision on 11 September? In the meantime, will he note that this proposal is opposed not only by me, but by my hon. Friends the Members for Christchurch (Mr Chope), for Poole (Mr Syms), for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Michael Tomlinson), for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) and anybody else I have forgotten in Dorset?

[Chris Grayling]

I can understand the challenge my hon. Friend faces in trying to remember all the Conservative MPs in Dorset—there are now so many of them in his part of the world. As always, my hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for his constituency and for the county of Dorset. I know that the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will have listened carefully to what he said. It is a sign of the concern about this matter that an Adjournment debate has been called next Monday by my hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Richard Drax). I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Conor Burns) will want to make a point in that debate. I have no doubt that the Secretary of State will have listened carefully to my hon. Friend, but she has to do this job properly in her role as assessor of the issues.