Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I could not agree more with my right hon. and learned Friend on the question of the Whips' control over business. I made a point earlier, in an intervention, about the manner in which Standing Orders, which now number about 170, have taken away power from the House as a whole. That is why we want a business committee. Let me ask my right hon. and learned Friend, if he is going to continue to pursue this argument about the courts' being the final arbiter, please to bear in mind the primacy that is asserted in the annexe to the Lisbon treaty, plus the substantial amount of European case law that it represents. It would mean that the Supreme Court, which has already struck down an Act of Parliament—the Merchant Shipping Act 1988—in the Factortame case, would be inclined as a matter of law, irrespective of any political or quasi-judicial considerations, to take a position on sovereignty that would not be to the liking of many of us on the Opposition Benches. We need a proper parliamentary sovereignty Bill to ensure that we get the whole package.