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Speech in Public Bill Committees - Tue 30 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Eighth sitting)

"That is rather my point—exactly. With a wider area of appreciation, it is possible to take account of that. It becomes much more difficult the narrower it is. It also comes down to the size of the building blocks. I think the right hon. Gentleman mentioned that some of his …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Eighth sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Tue 30 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Eighth sitting)

"Would the hon. Gentleman consider the possibility that it is because we have been through a couple of boundary commission recommendations, and found how inadequate and badly based many of them are, that we distrust them?..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Eighth sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Tue 30 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)

"There is something I fail to understand in this argument. Is Ynys Môn not connected by a bridge that was built around 100 years ago and is readily used all the time? How is it different from any other bridge in this country over rivers? The Isle of Wight argument …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Tue 30 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)

"The right hon. Lady’s definition of “recent” must slightly differ from mine. The Menai suspension bridge was built in 1826, at just about the time we were getting any sort of franchise and about 100 years before we had universal franchise. This is a pretty thin argument, is it not?..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Tue 30 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)

"Can we have some clarity on how the arithmetic works? Will Wales be taken as a block and allocated a number of seats, from which the protected seat would then be abstracted and its quota spread among the other seats? Alternatively, will Wales’s population be included with England’s and Scotland’s, …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Seventh sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Thu 25 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)

"Essentially, the Minister is avoiding the central political reality, which is that because of the way the boundary commission went about its work, whether according to its instructions or not, the Conservative Government fundamentally lost control of their Members of Parliament. Ironically, in 1969, the then Labour Government had absolute …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Thu 25 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)

"I think that we should explore that constitutional issue, because we also need to look at the procedures of the House. Only the Government can instigate legislation, apart from the rather convoluted private Members’ Bills procedures. Indeed, even when such a Bill may be trying to proceed, it can be …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Thu 25 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)

"Briefly, several of the factors that the Minister outlined were blindingly obviously after 2015 as well. The population in this country was going up and there had been a referendum to leave the European Union. Was it not, frankly, the shallowness of David Cameron and the stubbornness of the right …..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)
Speech in Public Bill Committees - Thu 25 Jun 2020
Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)

"Will the right hon. Gentleman tell us which football team he does support?..."
Lord Spellar - View Speech

View all Lord Spellar (Lab - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Parliamentary Constituencies Bill (Sixth sitting)
Written Question
Marriage and Civil Partnerships: Coronavirus
Thursday 25th June 2020

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to allow weddings and civil partnership ceremonies to recommence.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt

The Government understands the huge significance of weddings. We recognise that because weddings have not been able to take place in recent months this has caused difficulty and distress for many people. As set out in the Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy, published in May, the Government has been examining how to enable people to gather in slightly larger groups better to facilitate small weddings. We have worked closely with faith leaders and local government on how best to achieve this. The Prime Minister announced on 23 June that wedding and civil partnership ceremonies will be able to take place in England from 4 July. People should avoid having a large ceremony, and should invite no more than thirty family and friends. Venues should ensure they are COVID-19 secure.