Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

May I thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have contributed to this important debate. I hope that its conclusion on Report will be provisions in the Parliamentary Standards Act as amended that will ensure that the new system of parliamentary pay, allowances and pensions command the respect of the public—that is fundamental—and enable Members of Parliament to do their duty without harassment or undue penalty to them or their families. Let me pick up the remarks of the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker). He made a generous and heartfelt apology, probably not for the first time, to his wife and children for his eccentricity in choosing to put himself in the public firing line, and I think that his position will be echoed in the experiences of Members on both sides of the House. It is worth recalling that there was a great fight to have Members of Parliament paid at all; I think it was the Liberal Government of Asquith who first provided for their payment. The right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) and I have been in the House for more than three decades, and certainly when I came to the House 31 years ago, the pay was lousy. I was at the Bar at first, which was fine, and then I became a special adviser, which was also fine, but then I had to be found outdoor relief when I was peremptorily dismissed as a special adviser because I had become a parliamentary candidate, and I did not have a particularly good job in those two years. I thought about going back to the Bar but, as colleagues who have been in that noble profession will know, although I may have earned quite a lot of money, I would have received virtually nothing from ever difficult solicitors. Granada Television offered me a job as a researcher, and even that was better paid than the pay I "enjoyed" when I became a Member of Parliament. I was fortunate, because I was able to earn a bit of extra money through journalism—quite a lot in due course—and I had a wife who had embarked on a sensible and stable career, but notwithstanding the beginning of Short money when I went into the shadow Cabinet in 1987, my office costs had to be subsidised out of my family's income every year until I became a Minister. Every year, the Fees Office would approach me with an estimate of what I had to pay it, not because I had over-claimed and had to repay, but so that my staff in Blackburn and in the House could be paid and so that other costs could be met. Yes, the House went too far in correcting that situation, but we are all anxious—I am sure that Sir Ian Kennedy and his colleagues at IPSA are taking this on board—that the situation should not revert to that which obtained before, when a lot of people were actively prevented or put off from coming to the House. I worry that future generations of very good people will be put off, partly by public scrutiny. We all have to accept such scrutiny because the House signed up with great alacrity to the Freedom of Information Act 2000; indeed, it was the House itself that demanded that Parliament should be included in that Act. Ever compliant with the wishes of the House, I, as the sponsoring Minister said yes to that. I worry that future generations will also be put off by the overall remuneration, which is a worry for us all. It is the people of the country, rather than the people in the House, who will suffer if we cannot attract into politics people of quality and assiduity, whatever their social background, monetary wealth or lack thereof.