UK Borders Bill

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The most extraordinary thing about the procedure this evening is that it does not allow for debate on a matter that Members on both sides of the argument wish to debate on the Floor of the House. However, I would be out of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, were I to continue that strain of argument. I find it extraordinary that yet again the Government are making proposals that were not included in the original Bill and were not therefore the subject of a Ways and Means resolution on Second Reading. As I understand the Government’s new clause, which is yet to be debated in Committee and has not been introduced at the appropriate stage in the Committee’s proceedings, the intention is to allow the Government to introduce fees and charges for those who are seeking to emigrate to this country that are beyond full cost recovery, in the certain knowledge that people are in no position to argue with the imposition of such fees and charges. It would be wrong to debate the substance of the new clause this evening—that will have to be done in Committee—but it is not proper for this House, which prides itself on its ability to scrutinise when given the opportunity to do so, to allow to pass without any comment whatsoever a Ways and Means resolution that allows the Government, yet again, to ride roughshod over the House’s ability to scrutinise its business properly. The new clause should have been introduced in the original Bill, but it was not. The Minister gave no explanation and simply put the motion before the House formally. That is no more a proper way of doing business than is the way in which we will consider the later piece of business. The least that the Minister can do is to explain why we have this motion before us tonight.