Parliamentary Standards Bill

That is why I am confessing my bad behaviour to the House. Before reading the Bill, I thought that what I was doing was a noble activity; I believed that one of the reasons for which I was sent here was to think laterally and gain cross-fertilisation of ideas, which would make my role more effective. The third reason for my opposition to the Bill is that those who we know have outside interests, who represent the Executive and who are paid handsomely for it, do not have to declare their time. I appreciate that extending patronage has been taken to the absurd conclusion whereby one can be an unpaid Minister, but one also, presumably, spends a great deal of time fulfilling functions. That group, which has helped strangle the House of Commons so that it cannot carry out its historic functions, goes scot-free. They do not have to declare anything about the time that they spend on sometimes making it difficult for us to carry out our functions as representatives. There is another reason for opposing clause 5(8), which I believe will distort this place. We had to vote for a collection of ideas—we could not simply vote on whether to declare our interests, part-time earnings and time. We had to vote for four issues at once. The major one was clearing up abuses, for which one wanted to vote. Many Labour Members wanted to vote for the measure because they deeply resent the large sums of money that some Members may earn from outside interests. The rewards system in our society is deeply offensive to my constituents who work jolly hard, get £11,000 a year, are messed about by tax credits, are brilliantly raising two or three children on that sum and then see the sums that Members, let alone bankers, earn. There was a feeling that we could, to some extent, abate the gross inequalities in the rewards systems by passing the measure. I believe that we should tackle those inequalities through taxation and other methods, not by trying to distort the functions of the House of Commons. There is one last reason for my opposition to clause 5 as it stands. I will not support it in the Lobby; I hope that I shall have a chance to vote against it. It makes a mockery of what I thought public service was about, and what I have tried to fulfil in my 30 years as a Member of Parliament. Of course, not every minute of my waking day is spent thinking about how I can be effective—and dare I say more effective?—in that role, but it is the driving force in my existence. I am now confronted with this wretched little Bill, which provides for my setting egg timers every time I might undertake an activity that is not of primary concern to my essence as a human being. The Bill asks me to spit on a record that I have tried to build over 30 years. It is a disgraceful little measure. While making a mockery of what we believed to be public service, it will—much more damagingly—affect the nature of representation in the House. For that reason alone, it should be rejected. The guts of the measure could deal with the expenses abuse. If that was the Government's main intention, we could have got agreement and passed it today. However, there are other elements in the Bill, which have profound constitutional implications. I do not believe that we should have a set timetable to consider them or that we should be whipped through the Lobby to support the Bill.