Greater London Authority Bill

I have taken no part in the previous proceedings on this Bill, and your Lordships will be relieved to hear that I do not propose to take any part in later stages. However, my eye was caught by the provisions of Clause 1, and I find myself astonished that both Houses of Parliament appear to be settling down to pass without comment a provision that enables the Mayor and Members of the London Assembly to decide on their own severance remuneration when even Members of your Lordships' House have their remuneration or recompense, such as it is, settled by an independent body. In an age when the public increasingly want the transparency and assurance of public finance being administered independently, it seems to me quite extraordinarily out of touch with our times that this clause should be put in the Bill without even contention. I did not want that to happen, and I make the comment, as an independent Conservative Back-Bench voice-I am not voicing my party's policy-that this is entirely wrong. If we were able to divide, I would be precipitating a Division at the end of this discussion, were I not satisfied, as I do not expect to be, by what the Minister is about to tell us.