City Status (Reading)

John Howell Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Westminster Hall

[Mr Mike Hancock (in the Chair)]

Thank you. I call Mr Rob Wilson.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Mike Hancock (in the Chair)]

Order. I shall try to get you both in. Bear in mind that the Minister has to respond to the hon. Member for Reading West, so could you both take a maximum of four or five minutes?

--- Later in debate ---

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to participate in this discussion under your chairmanship, Mr Hancock. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Alok Sharma) on securing the debate. Reading is a neighbour to my constituency, but it is more than that. I do not wish to take issue with my hon. Friend’s geography, but the Olympic rowing lake—the Redgrave Pinsent rowing lake—is in my constituency, even though its waters practically lap over the rails as the train comes into Reading. The town provides all of the facilities that my hon. Friends have mentioned—both for their constituents and mine—so it would be churlish not to support this bid. However, my constituents and I need reassurance on some issues, to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood) has already alluded.

How different would a city be from the current Reading town in its territorial ambitions and in terms of building into my constituency, because the town has always seemed to have a very aggressive approach? How different would a city be from the town in tackling major emotive issues such as transport, including the long-running possibility of a new bridge across the Thames, which would throw lots of traffic into south Oxfordshire? Furthermore, how different would a city be from the current town in engaging sensitively with constituents on my side of the constituency border?

I appreciate that, for much of my time in politics, Reading has not been under a Conservative Administration, but I hope that that will change, because I am sure it will be to its advantage. I understand that the answers to the questions that I have posed are not necessarily in the gift of my hon. Friends the Members for Reading West and for Reading East (Mr Wilson) to answer, but answered they must be if they wish to have the unequivocal support of surrounding MPs and their constituents for a city bid. As has already been said, Reading has already exhibited many of the characteristics of a city and is an important hub for the wider area.

Libya/European Council

John Howell Excerpts

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I certainly give that assurance. We are still updating daily the number of British citizens in Libya and the numbers who want to leave. There has obviously been an increase, because so many journalists have gone to the country, but we do what we can with partners to try to get those people out who want to get out. Given that the Turks are now helping us with our diplomatic representation in Tripoli, there are avenues to do that, but if the hon. Gentleman has specific cases in mind, I refer him to the Foreign Secretary and his team, whom I know will do everything that they can to help.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

May I return my right hon. Friend to the communiqué on fiscal consolidation? I wonder whether he would say what message it now gives to those who still oppose tackling deficits on an urgent basis.

[The Prime Minister]

I think the simplest way of putting it is this: if we cut the deficit in half in four years, as Labour proposed, that would mean that in four years’ time our deficit would be about the same size as Portugal’s today. That really brings it home to us that the problem in Britain is that much deeper because the deficit we inherited was that much bigger. That means, as the European Commission and the European Union said:

“Consolidation should be frontloaded in Member States facing very large structural deficits”.

I think they mean us.