John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)Department Debates - View all John Bercow's debates with the Leader of the House
(9 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hague
The hon. Gentleman raises the same point as others, including the shadow Leader of the House. I do not have much more to add to what I said earlier. I said I would look at the evidence and representations on the matter and will always listen to concerns about adequate time for debating legislation. On any Bill for which representations are made for more time and more time is given, it is important to use that time—otherwise it takes up time to debate for other matters. [Interruption.] That has been the pattern so far.
Mr Speaker
The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) says that he will use it—assuming he catches the eye, of course.
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)
Is it possible to have an early debate on the plight of the dairy industry in the United Kingdom? I welcome the fact that inflation is running at 0.5%, but when supermarkets advertise milk at 89p for four pints—considerably cheaper than the price of water on their shelves—something is clearly going wrong. As my right hon. Friend knows, many farmers did not get paid for several weeks and the wholesale price they are paid has collapsed. May we have an urgent debate to ensure that the vitality of this important industry is preserved?
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Disappointingly, Morrison’s have decided to close their store at Bransholme in Hull, which will involve a loss of jobs. Surprisingly, I have just received an e-mail from the site managing agent criticising me for raising concerns about those job losses. This is at a time when the 14 new jobs at Siemens in Hull attracted 1,000 applicants. May we have a debate on the jobs situation, especially in northern cities? Also, two years ago, the Government scrapped the gathering of statistics to show how many jobseekers were chasing each vacancy. May we have those figures reinstated, please?