Business of the House

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Where do we go from there? I call the shadow Leader of the House.

[Jesse Norman]

I doubt if the Leader of the House has ever given a more popular statement to the House of Commons. More seriously, this is a welcome development as it will give guidance to colleagues and their families, and I am sure it will be widely welcomed across the House, so I thank her for that.

I understand that Robert Gibbs, the acting director of catering services, will be leaving on Friday, after 25 years in this House. One shudders to think of the thousands of Members of the House of Commons and their staff whose lives will have been enriched by the joy of eating the food of the catering services under his command, and we thank him very much for his service. I am sure that the whole House will want to join me in thanking him for his work.

We are getting close to the end of term and I want to thank all the staff for their service, and, of course, you, Madam Deputy Speaker, the Speaker and the other Deputy Speakers, and the Clerks for the resilience, courage, determination and poker faces that they have kept through all the business questions that we have had since the beginning of the year.

It may come as slightly more of a surprise to the House that I also want to thank the Leader of the House. No one who has not held that position understands the amount of work that is involved in scheduling and managing the business of this House, let alone the amount of work involved in scheduling and managing the Prime Minister and Cabinet colleagues. The Leader of the House distinguished herself with her very graceful response to my remarks about my father some months ago, and I thank her again for that. I also thank her for her engagement and humour and, I must say, more than a few groan-inducing puns, of which we will undoubtedly see considerably more this morning and with which she has dealt with questions from colleagues across all parts of this House.

I hope I may register that it is a slight sadness to me that the Leader of the House has not been willing to answer my own questions in the same spirit. I ask these questions not in a personal capacity, but as the spokesman for His Majesty’s official Opposition, whose function is, after all, to hold the Government to account. The refusal to answer genuine, sensible questions is actually a discourtesy not just to the House, but to our wider constitutional framework and ultimately the supreme source of sovereign authority in this country: the King in Parliament. I think any fair-minded person reviewing our exchanges would conclude that my questions are almost always directed at some public purpose, and it would undoubtedly improve business questions and the accountability and authority of the Leader of the House if she were able to engage with them.

In the same spirit, I will raise some serious questions about what the Government’s position is with regard to Northern Ireland veterans. As the Leader of the House will know, hundreds and thousands of men and women went to Northern Ireland not of their own accord, but under orders and in a chain of command on the Queen’s business, to combat the most serious terrorist organisation in the world at the time and to protect human lives and human society. Many of those veterans, including many members of the special forces, cannot respond to the terrible injustice being done to them.

Almost exactly a year ago, barely three weeks after the election, the Government decided to abandon the appeals to the Supreme Court to uphold the key sections of the legacy Act against a High Court judgment in Northern Ireland. In the veterans debate on Monday, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said that those sections were “unlawful” as a result of the judgment. Yesterday, in Prime Minister’s questions, the Prime Minister himself said twice that the legacy Act had been “struck down”. Unfortunately, those statements are both untrue and misleading.

There can be no doubt what the law is on this topic. A succession of the most senior judges in recent British history—Judges Steyn, Hope, Bingham, Hale and Reed among them—have made it absolutely clear that a declaration of incompatibility does not mean that the law is unlawful or has been struck down. As the then Senior Law Lord, Lord Bingham, said in 2004, in such cases the validity of the law “remains unaffected”.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is no lawyer, but he should understand that basic point, given his job. The Prime Minister, however, has been a barrister for 38 years, and a human rights lawyer for most of that time. It is inconceivable that he did not understand the distinction. To that extent, he was, whether deliberately or inadvertently, misleading the House.

The Secretary of State appeared to say that he had abandoned these appeals on political grounds. It is plain that the Government are split and have been unable to develop a satisfactory legal remedy in the 12 months since they abandoned the appeals, leaving thousands of veterans, many in their 70s and older, exposed to legal harassment, anxiety and trauma.

I put two serious and substantive questions to the Leader of the House. As the Leader of the House, in upholding the practices, tradition and honour of this House, will she ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Prime Minister to correct those false and misleading statements to the House? When will we see legislation to address the legal gap that the Government’s decision to abandon these legacy Act appeals has created?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Before the Leader of the House responds, in case I misheard, let me say that the shadow Leader of the House knows we do not accuse colleagues of misleading the House. “Inadvertent” is the language.

[Lucy Powell]

I was very pleased to announce the recess dates for the whole of the next academic year. That is one modernisation that I said I would bring in to give colleagues more certainty a year in advance, and I am pleased that we have been able to announce those dates today. As the House goes into recess next week, I join the shadow Leader of the House in thanking you, Madam Deputy Speaker, as well as Mr Speaker, the other Deputy Speakers and all the House staff, for all the incredible work they do for us all year round.

In the spirit of the shadow Leader of the House’s comments, I also thank him. We work closely behind the scenes on a number of boards and committees, and I always find his contributions to be valuable and considered. I share his comments about Robert Gibbs. As the shadow Leader of the House said, he is the acting director of catering services, and will be leaving the House after 25 years of service. He has definitely kept us all very well fed—perhaps, at times, too well fed—and I wish him all the best.

I will also take this opportunity to mention that I know many Members across the House are deeply concerned by the use of a super-injunction that had the effect of keeping important policy and Government developments from this House. As Leader of the House of Commons, the fact that this situation continued for so long makes me deeply uncomfortable and concerned. We have long-established mechanisms and Committees for scrutinising secret and sensitive information in such cases, and as the Prime Minister said yesterday, the previous Government have some serious questions to answer, including about why the House was kept in the dark. I look forward to the Defence Committee and other Committees looking into these issues.

The shadow Leader of the House asked me to answer his questions. I am always happy to do so when he brings them to me, and he has raised some questions today about the Northern Ireland legacy Act. It is important that these issues are discussed sensitively, and that we work together on them without raising the temperature or using irresponsible rhetoric about them, because we all have profound respect for our veterans and owe a debt to them.

This is a complex situation, and we need to resolve it. The shadow Leader of the House might disagree, but the previous Government’s legacy Act was found to be unlawful and unworkable, and is now subject to further court action. That means that currently no one is protected by that Act; neither does it give people the justice they want, because there would be so much legal uncertainty about doing so. That is why our priority is finding a way forward that gives veterans, survivors and communities confidence in the process. We will take our time to do this, and of course we will regularly update the House as we consider how to do so.

Today marks the year’s anniversary of the first Labour monarch’s speech in 15 years. The story of our Labour Government is told through the legislation we have already brought in. We are standing up for ordinary working people against the vested interests that hold our country back, giving people powers, new rights and opportunities and making the powerful more accountable. This has already led to real change and real-life impacts, and if you will forgive me, Madam Deputy Speaker, the House might want to think about a few of those today.

We have stopped water bosses taking bonuses for polluting our waters; we have brought South Western Railway back into public ownership, with more to come; we have saved the jobs of steelworkers in Scunthorpe; and we have banned zombie knives and ninja swords. Soon, off-road vehicles will be seized and crushed, and shoplifting will once again be taken seriously.

We have put fans and communities back at the heart of our national game. We are ending no-fault evictions and ensuring renters have rights over their landlords. We are capping the cost of school uniforms and have introduced free breakfast clubs, and we have changed the right to buy so that councils can build more social homes. We are ensuring that buses are run for people, not for profit, and we have capped bus fares. We have increased the national living wage—the biggest increase since it was introduced—and very soon, we will see an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts and it will be against the law to fire and rehire. There is much more, but I will not go on.

It has also been a year since my first business questions. In that time, I have answered over 1,700 questions. I have had countless invitations to cafés and pubs—more of those, please. I have also had some invitations to sporting events and runs—less of those, thank you very much. We have heard about the wonderful people in communities in all corners of our country, who we are all here to represent. There is healthy competition about who represents the most beautiful, most active, most charitable, most visited, worst connected and most congested constituency, but I am sure colleagues will allow me to abuse my position at the Dispatch Box today to say that Manchester Central is obviously the best constituency overall.

Talking of which, I could not let this opportunity pass without telling the House that Manchester is buzzing right now with its bucket hats, its music and even parkas in this hot weather, as we have all come together to celebrate the Oasis reunion. As we say, “Manchester vibes in the area!” Let us not forget that when Oasis were last performing at Heaton Park, it was under a Labour Government. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] The shadow Leader of the House invited me to give the House a few more groaning puns, so if he will forgive me, “Some Might Say” that this Government have “The Masterplan” for change. I know it has not been a great year for the Conservatives since their biggest election defeat in history, but perhaps they need to “Stop Crying Your Heart Out”, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and hope that Reform “Fade Away”.

Talking of which, in the past year we have seen Reform come on the scene in the House of Commons. Some of their MPs have had better attendance rates than others. The hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) is, as usual, probably on a beach “Half the World Away”. [Hon. Members: “Oh.”] No? There is more. [Interruption.] Come on, there is one last one. Let us hope that this Labour Government “Live Forever”.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Well, that was interesting. [Laughter.] To correct the record, Sussex Weald is the greatest constituency on Earth. I call Perran Moon.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Meur ras, Madam Deputy Speaker. In Cornwall, the word dreckly means at some unspecified time in the future—a bit like mañana. I have learned since arriving in this place that there is an equivalent parliamentary expression: “in due course”. Of the five Celtic languages, which include Manx Gaelic, only the Cornish language does not have part III minority language status. Can the Leader of the House advise me how I can get a Minister to tell me—without using the words dreckly, mañana or in due course—when this ridiculous Cornish language anomaly will be rectified?

--- Later in debate ---

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Marie Goldman (Chelmsford) (LD)]

If you will indulge me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I join the shadow Leader of the House and the Leader of the House in thanking you, the other Deputy Speakers and Mr Speaker, as well as the Clerks of the House and the House staff, for all the amazing work that they do to support us in our jobs. It is not an exaggeration to say that we would not be able to do it without all of them and all of you.

I also join the shadow Leader of the House in thanking the Leader of the House for the responses that she gives to business questions, which I see every single week. It has been a pleasure to get to know both of them on the various Committees and boards that we serve on, and I thank them for that.

Turning to a slightly more serious matter, last week the Secretary of State for Transport announced that the Government have cancelled the A12 widening scheme between Chelmsford and Colchester. That is incredibly disappointing news and a real blow to my Chelmsford constituents, Essex residents and the east of England as a whole. The A12 is a crucial link for communities across Essex, which supports logistics to the major international ports and airports in the region. It is also dangerously congested.

The scheme would have addressed both of those problems and improved the journeys of the approximately 90,000 vehicles that travel on the road every day. More critically, the cancellation’s impact on house building could be profound. Local plans, including that of Chelmsford city council, are reliant on the A12 widening scheme going ahead. The cancellation could severely hamper the building of an estimated 55,000 new homes in the area.

With Labour pledging to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament, this issue cuts across party lines. While I appreciate the financial constraints under which the Treasury is operating, it is notable that the two major road schemes that were cancelled in the recent announcement were both in the east of England, yet this region is a net contributor to the UK economy and has huge growth potential. Will the Leader of the House ask the Secretaries of State for Transport and for Housing, Communities and Local Government to meet me and a cross-party group of MPs so that we can discuss how we might still find ways to move forward with this vital project that will help the Government to deliver on their promises?