Police and Justice Bill

My Lords, I, too, express my surprise that the official Opposition have withdrawn their opposition on the ground that we are the unelected House. I have heard them argue differently in the past and I am surprised that they have now accepted the government view in totality—that if the Commons override amendments sent to them, that is the end of the matter because we are an unelected House. That places this House in a very junior position indeed. It is not as if the House of Commons cannot get its own way. It can always get its own way by using the Parliament Act. That is exactly what it should do under these circumstances. This extradition agreement with the United States has been a disgrace from beginning to end. I know that particularly. The Minister will remember that I intervened during the debates on the European arrest warrant to draw the Committee’s attention to what was happening with the negotiations with the United States. The fact that the Government wanted to negotiate something in secrecy is altogether against any credit that they might otherwise have had. I very much regret the fact that the official Opposition have withdrawn their opposition to what the Government have been doing and that they will not insist on the proper amendments, sent to the House of Commons by this House after much debate among people well qualified in this particular law. If the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, is put to the vote—I hope that it will be—I should be delighted to support it.