UK Parliament / Open data

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Debate on bills and Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Wednesday, 20 October 2010, in the House of Commons.
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. Committee stage fourth day. Clauses 8, 9 and 11 agreed to amended. Clauses 10, 12 to 17 agreed to. Schedule 7 agreed to. Committee to sit again tomorrow.

About these Parliamentary proceedings

Reference

516 c995-1104 

Session

2010-12

Department

Leader of the House of Commons

Legislative stage

Committee stage

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Related items

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. Explanatory notes also published (Bill 63-EN).
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Bills
House of Commons
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee third report in 2 volumes with formal minutes, evidence and appendices.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Parliamentary committees
House of Commons
The coalition Government's programme of political and constitutional reform. Evidence 15 July 2010.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Parliamentary committees
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Robert Syms | 516 c999 (Link to this contribution) To be entirely clear, is it Labour party policy that England be under-represented in this House?
Chris Bryant | 516 c998-9 (Link to this contribution) The seats in the Welsh Assembly are coterminous with those for this Parliament at the moment, althou...

Show all contributions (293)
Mark Durkan | 516 c998 (Link to this contribution) Further to that point, does my hon. Friend recognise that because of the arithmetical formula, the B...
David Heath | 516 c996-7 (Link to this contribution) I welcome you back to the Chair, Ms Primarolo, and to the consideration of clause 8. I am delighted ...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c995-6 (Link to this contribution) I remind the Committee that with this we are taking the following:
Chris Bryant | 516 c1005 (Link to this contribution) Further to that point of order, Mr Hood. Does that also apply to amendment 341 or 342?
Geraint Davies | 516 c1004 (Link to this contribution) My amendment would provide for the Office for National Statistics to conduct an assessment of the nu...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1004-5 (Link to this contribution) Precisely. That is one of the things that the Boundary Commission should consider. One other issue ...
Graham Stringer | 516 c1005 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Hood. I should like to press amendment 38 to a Division. What is the appropr...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1005 (Link to this contribution) Now that the hon. Gentleman has given notice that he wishes to press his amendment to a Division, I ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1003 (Link to this contribution) But it was very good, Mr Hood, and spot on. I hope that some coalition Members accept that when we w...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1003 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right to point to the Bill's partisan nature. Did he hear anything from the Chance...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1003-4 (Link to this contribution) No—I heard exactly the opposite. I think that there was a reference to a 7% cut in local authority f...
Chris Bryant | 516 c999 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right to correct me. I accept the admonition that three seats are being created in...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 516 c999 (Link to this contribution) I detected a form of back-pedalling in the hon. Gentleman's answer to the hon. Member for Alyn and D...
Chris Bryant | 516 c999-1000 (Link to this contribution) No. The hon. Gentleman knows that personally I have a great affection for the islands; indeed, many ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 516 c1000 (Link to this contribution) I want some clarification. Does the hon. Gentleman agree with the sensible exceptions that have been...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1000 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I do. As the hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well, we have tabled amendments that would include ...
Naomi Long | 516 c1000 (Link to this contribution) Could we put it this way? Given that the Government have already conceded that there are exceptions ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1000 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady speaks with almost as much sagacity as the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr Ma...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1000 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend find it surprising that the Bill comes from a party that is meant to be committe...
Chris Bryant | 516 c999 (Link to this contribution) No, it is not Labour party policy that anywhere be under-represented. We believe, as I said yesterda...
Mark Tami | 516 c999 (Link to this contribution) To correct not only my hon. Friend but myself, I should say that I am reliably informed that three s...
Susan Elan Jones | 516 c1002 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree with what the women's institute has written? As I am sure all hon. Members...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1002-3 (Link to this contribution) Tony Blair learned that one should not really mess with the women's institute, and I have no intenti...
Geraint Davies | 516 c1002 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend suggested that there would be changes every five years but that that might not affect...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1002 (Link to this contribution) Members on both sides are laughing because my hon. Friend has of course moved around the country him...
Chris Ruane | 516 c1003 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend says that we did not do as much as we could have done, and I agree, but we did do som...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1003 (Link to this contribution) As I was talking of my hon. Friend, I shall give way to him.
Phil Wilson | 516 c1001 (Link to this contribution) Does the shadow Minister agree that over, say, a 20-year period of four Parliaments one community co...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1001 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. Particularly in many rural areas where the difference between reaching the mathematical ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1000-1 (Link to this contribution) My hon. and historical Friend is absolutely right. That adds to my argument, and to arguments that I...
Alan Reid | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) The Deputy Leader of the House has supported the Government line that a constituency with 22,000 ele...
Andrew Turner | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) I do not understand why it is necessary for the Minister, who wants to reduce the number of Members,...
David Heath | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) I understand my hon. Friend's point, because his constituency is indeed a very difficult case, and t...
David Heath | 516 c1086 (Link to this contribution) May I deal with the issues raised by the hon. Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers)? He has a grea...
Mark Durkan | 516 c1087 (Link to this contribution) The Deputy Leader of the House told us that the figure of 600 was arbitrary. He has still not explai...
Jacob Rees-Mogg | 516 c1087-8 (Link to this contribution) Mr Evans, thank you so much for calling me. It has been enlightening, educational and a real honour ...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1080-1 (Link to this contribution) I shall make some progress, because I promised to be brief. The fourth argument advanced is that MP...
Andrew Love | 516 c1083 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is criticising the arguments that have been used by the Opposition, so may I addr...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1081 (Link to this contribution) The Bill contains criteria about the maximum geographical size of constituencies. I observe, in pass...
David Heath | 516 c1081-2 (Link to this contribution) On the very last point that the hon. Member for Croydon Central (Gavin Barwell) made, I think I reca...
David Heath | 516 c1084 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady will have to be a little bit patient and not just stand there, but ask and then wait u...
Mark Field | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) I very much agree with everything that the Minister says about the equalisation of constituencies. C...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1074 (Link to this contribution) There has been hardly any discussion tonight about the existing rules. Will my hon. Friend put on re...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1079 (Link to this contribution) I want to start by agreeing with the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) who, unf...
Stephen Gilbert | 516 c1077 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend. This brings me neatly to my intervention, which is made in the spirit of coa...
Thomas Docherty | 516 c1080 (Link to this contribution) I understand that the approach will be to start at the south coast of England and work north, so the...
Lord Mann | 516 c1074 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's argument would be more consistent if he were to tell us why he sees a problem a...
Robert Syms | 516 c1073 (Link to this contribution) Most Parliaments set their own size—that is part of most constitutions—but two that do not are the U...
Robert Syms | 516 c1073 (Link to this contribution) But that is principally because of the changes in Scotland, which, incidentally—
Chris Bryant | 516 c1074 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, but the hon. Gentleman is wrong. People will be able to make representations only in wri...
Mark Field | 516 c1049 (Link to this contribution) I entirely agree, and I am not defending that element of the Bill. Neither can I see any justificat...
Mark Tami | 516 c1048 (Link to this contribution) I listened to what the hon. Gentleman said about the three seats in Scotland. In Wales, there could ...
Mark Field | 516 c1048 (Link to this contribution) I shall certainly take the hon. Gentleman up on that. On the first part of what he said—he and I bot...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1050-1 (Link to this contribution) The Liberals are in a determined rush to sign their own death warrant. I cannot judge them. I am try...
Ian Lucas | 516 c1050 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend said that the Liberal Democrats had always supported the single transferable vote. Co...
Graham Stringer | 516 c1051 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the single biggest weakness of the British constitution is that elect...
David Heath | 516 c1053 (Link to this contribution) I am bemused by this concept that the figure of 600 would prevent Members of Parliament from being a...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1053 (Link to this contribution) The bigger the size of the constituency and the electorate, the harder it is to represent them adequ...
Anne Main | 516 c1052 (Link to this contribution) Although I completely support the reduction in the number of Members, I have huge sympathy with the ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1051 (Link to this contribution) I just wanted to correct a fact that my hon. Friend gave. He said that there were 700 Members in the...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend absolutely; he has made that point very well. That is another good title...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1054 (Link to this contribution) I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. There has been a lot of damaging criticism and abuse of MPs ...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1054 (Link to this contribution) I agree absolutely with that. A number of Members would like to see us as some kind of intellectual...
Mark Durkan | 516 c1054 (Link to this contribution) I just want to reinforce my hon. Friend's point. He has to ring Belfast about CSA cases, but he is n...
Wayne David | 516 c1053 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that the important point is not just that we take up individual cases, but...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1056 (Link to this contribution) I shall speak to my amendments 67 and 68. Amendment 67 would substitute the figure of 600 for 585. I...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1056-7 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that it is an arbitrary figure; I am pleased that he concedes that. He says ...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, Ms Primarolo. I should have said that it is much easier to do this job with 650 MPs, an...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) The people who support the idea of reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600 say that it will save ...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) Some of us labour under the misfortune of being better looking than others—[Laughter.] We might appe...
Ian Lucas | 516 c1058 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making an important speech. Does he agree that what the public want is a strai...
Lord Wharton of Yarm | 516 c1057 (Link to this contribution) I have a great deal of sympathy with my hon. Friend's argument about the House of Lords, but surely ...
Lord Dodds of Duncairn | 516 c1057-8 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making an excellent point, as did his hon. Friend the Member for Cities of Lon...
Ian Mearns | 516 c1057 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has made a pertinent point in referring to the size of second Chambers in many mo...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1057 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has made a perfectly fair point. Let us recall, however, that although the Government...
Julian Huppert | 516 c1061 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is going to give us a long history lesson, will he at least assure us that he ...
Lord Mann | 516 c1062 (Link to this contribution) There has never been an arbitrary mathematical equation. I would be ruled out of order if I went thr...
Pete Wishart | 516 c1062 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is talking about mathematics, so here is some maths for him: 70% of MPs in Scotla...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1060 (Link to this contribution) Ms Primarolo, you have already criticised me for speculating, and I am certainly not going to specul...
Mark Field | 516 c1061 (Link to this contribution) I very much agree with what the hon. Gentleman has to say, but does he not recognise that we have al...
Lord Mann | 516 c1060-1 (Link to this contribution) I wish to address my remarks to amendments 364 and 227. I particularly wish to deal with the princip...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1059 (Link to this contribution) Order. Shall we concentrate on what is actually in the Bill—in particular, the issue of the number o...
Thomas Docherty | 516 c1066 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend's knowledge is second to none in this House. Can he tell me, as someone who is not as...
Martin Vickers | 516 c1064-5 (Link to this contribution) This is the first time that I have spoken to amendments in my name—amendments 227 and 228 are the tw...
Lord Mann | 516 c1064 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is under the misapprehension that we have a statutory limit. At the moment, we ha...
Lord Mann | 516 c1062 (Link to this contribution) Much though I would love to answer the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart), I ...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1070 (Link to this contribution) I understand the hon. Gentleman's argument, but with respect, he is wrong. Very few local people mad...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1070-1 (Link to this contribution) In that case, will the hon. Lady explain why somebody might have said this at the Oxfordshire bounda...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1069 (Link to this contribution) Not for a very long time, and the hon. Gentleman should not shout. The matter is being discussed pr...
Andrew Love | 516 c1069 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady speaks about principles. Should it not be a principle of the measure, since it propose...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1068-9 (Link to this contribution) I cannot resist the hon. Gentleman's sedentary comment. I believe that there is something about 666,...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1069 (Link to this contribution) This is a cross-party discussion. We are all here in the Chamber having an open, cross-party discuss...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1071 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my right hon. Friend meant what he said. I do not disagree with him—what he said is f...
Andrew Turner | 516 c1071-2 (Link to this contribution) We have to be within a 95% to 105% range, and that may be reasonable, but some exceptions apply, inc...
Robert Syms | 516 c1072-3 (Link to this contribution) Listening to this debate, one would think that something major and radical was happening to our parl...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1072 (Link to this contribution) I am glad to say to my hon. Friend that it is not for me to answer that question, but I will give hi...
Sheila Gilmore | 516 c1021 (Link to this contribution) As a member of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, I am disappointed to find that a m...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1020 (Link to this contribution) That will happen not just if we do not have the boundary commission's public inquiry process, but if...
Thomas Docherty | 516 c1020 (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether my hon. Friend is familiar with the situation in the United States, where ther...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1019-20 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the due process that needs to be gone through. I b...
Robert Syms | 516 c1019 (Link to this contribution) With previous boundary reviews, there have sometimes been attempts at judicial review of elements of...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1018-9 (Link to this contribution) The Minister says that not so charmingly himself, so the favour goes back to him. Under the clause,...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1017 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment 234, page 7, line 17, at end insert—
Chris Bryant | 516 c1018 (Link to this contribution) First, let me briefly comment on the fact that before you took the Chair, Mr Hoyle, we had a former ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Lady knows, there are differences between Wales and Scotland: Scotland has a Parliament ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1036 (Link to this contribution) Just one moment. I know that the constituency of the hon. Member for Corby (Ms Bagshawe) contains m...
Mark Field | 516 c1036 (Link to this contribution) I agree with what the shadow Minister is trying to achieve, and, if the Committee divides on the ame...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1036-7 (Link to this contribution) No one is a more ardent Unionist than I am, and I fully understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying...
Lord Mann | 516 c1039 (Link to this contribution) Have we not now reached the crucial, salient point, which is that even in recent times Parliament ha...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1039-40 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This approach runs against the grain of how we have always done ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1038 (Link to this contribution) That was never my argument in favour of devolution in Scotland or Wales. My argument in favour of de...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, but I hope shortly to be able to come on to some of the argum...
Glyn Davies | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) I am listening carefully to the case that the hon. Gentleman is making. He seems to be saying that h...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) The Deputy Prime Minister keeps going on about this being the greatest constitutional reform legisla...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1028 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments 163 to 167.
David Heath | 516 c1028 (Link to this contribution) These are minor amendments to clarify the position on ministerial responsibilities in relation to th...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1028 (Link to this contribution) These amendments seem perfectly sensible and we have no problem with them. We hope that they will go...
Lord Mann | 516 c1032 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Hoyle. The amendments selected in this group include some that are proposing...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1032 (Link to this contribution) I welcome your opinion, but you cannot discuss amendments that have not been selected.
David Heath | 516 c1022-3 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful to the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs Laing) for moving the amendment. I...
Fiona Mactaggart | 516 c1023 (Link to this contribution) I did not jump into the trap that my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore) jump...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1034 (Link to this contribution) Given that this is indeed a partisan figure plucked out of the air, which appeared in neither of the...
Mark Field | 516 c1034 (Link to this contribution) Does the shadow Minister have any evidence whatever to back up his allegation?
Chris Bryant | 516 c1034-5 (Link to this contribution) I hope that the House of Lords will look at this sort of measure. Historically, it has always looked...
Andrew Turner | 516 c1034 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman accept the possibility that the compromise arrived at might not have been on...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1033-4 (Link to this contribution) Amendment 364 would replace the first subsection of clause 9, which states that the number of consti...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1032-3 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment 364, page 7, leave out lines 27 and 28 and insert—
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) I do not need to be picked up on that. I am not commenting at all on whether interventions are good ...
David TC Davies | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Ms Primarolo. Many Welsh MPs here are desperate to discuss clause 11, which rel...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) made a good point about how seats might be doled...
John Pugh | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) Given what the hon. Gentleman just said about Sheffield, the gerrymandering is extraordinarily bad, ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1046 (Link to this contribution) Who knows what ambitions the Deputy Prime Minister has? Perhaps he will be looking not for a Liberal...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman should not misrepresent what I have said. He knows perfectly well that I have nev...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) Actually, staying at 650 gives the Conservative party more of an advantage. I was about to argue th...
David TC Davies | 516 c1042 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, although I do not want to extend the debate for too long....
Chris Bryant | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) Yes, it is higher than both those figures, because it manages to reach a level that hits the number ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1042 (Link to this contribution) There has been absolutely no pre-legislative scrutiny. This has not been adumbrated in anybody's man...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) Bearing in mind what the hon. Gentleman used to say when he was in opposition, I should have thought...
Mark Harper | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
David TC Davies | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the checks is for the Government to allow ample time for a...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1040 (Link to this contribution) I very much agree. One subject that I want to mention is precisely what the job of a Member of Parli...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) Of course I will give way to the eminently charming gentleman.
Chris Bryant | 516 c1047 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman represents an area in Wales part of which, I guess, may end up in a constituency ...
Wayne David | 516 c1048 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman said that in his view there had been a grubby little compromise. That is quite a ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1047 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right: I am referring to Stafford Cripps. The book is not one that is availabl...
David Heath | 516 c1086 (Link to this contribution) It is difficult to maintain a process based on the equalisation of seats, and then to sustain the ca...
David Heath | 516 c1086 (Link to this contribution) I am addressing the Chair, and the Chair is seated at the Table, not on the Opposition Benches. As ...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1086 (Link to this contribution) Order. If hon. Members can be quieter, the entire Committee will be able to hear what Mr Heath is sa...
David Heath | 516 c1087 (Link to this contribution) We will have to differ on that specific point. I believe that what is proposed provides for a high l...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1100 (Link to this contribution) I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the No Lobby.
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1097 (Link to this contribution) I ask the Serjeant at Arms to investigate the delay in the No Lobby.
Jacob Rees-Mogg | 516 c1088-9 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend would like to have more—perhaps it is a ““points mean prizes”” occasion. However, I t...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1081 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way once more and then I shall conclude.
David Heath | 516 c1082-3 (Link to this contribution) Because this is a Bill about the House of Commons. The House of Lords will be dealt with in differen...
David Heath | 516 c1083-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will have to wait until I get to that point in my remarks, because I have a few o...
Ian Lucas | 516 c1082 (Link to this contribution) If that is the case, why is the Deputy Leader of the House dealing with the House of Lords separatel...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1084 (Link to this contribution) In a debate last night, the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs Laing) proved to me that this is a pa...
David Heath | 516 c1084 (Link to this contribution) I am addressing the arguments made in the Chamber tonight that suggested that the reduction from 650...
David Heath | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) Now I see that my hon. Friend is going to tell me about his constituency, which I accept is also a v...
David Heath | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I can. I can justify why the islands of northern Scotland are in a rather different position fr...
David Heath | 516 c1085 (Link to this contribution) I justify that very easily by the fact that Welsh constituencies are much smaller than constituencie...
Susan Elan Jones | 516 c1084 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for finally giving way. He mentioned that the Liberal Democrats and th...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1076-7 (Link to this contribution) That is the hon. Gentleman's phrase and he has put it on the record. The number of politicians to w...
Stephen Gilbert | 516 c1074-5 (Link to this contribution) As I understand it, the next group of amendments deals with cases of boundaries impinging on existin...
Robert Syms | 516 c1075 (Link to this contribution) In the interests of coalition solidarity, I shall finish my speech.
Stephen Williams | 516 c1075-6 (Link to this contribution) I, too, will try to be brief, as I know some colleagues want to speak on the second string. This cla...
Mark Tami | 516 c1076 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful argument. Could it be summed up in the phrase, ““Putting the...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1076 (Link to this contribution) I was just coming on to the reduction from 650 to 600, and I would like to offer some friendly scept...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1077 (Link to this contribution) I have not finished yet, but I will give way.
Mark Durkan | 516 c1078-9 (Link to this contribution) Like other Members, I am keen for us to reach the next set of amendments, so I shall make only a cou...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1077-8 (Link to this contribution) Then there is the state commissioner of the county of Ingham, and then there are all the judges to b...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1080 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's understanding is incorrect. I understand that this will be looked at on a regio...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1079-80 (Link to this contribution) I shall make some progress. I recognise that the coalition has proposed a slightly different figure,...
Robert Syms | 516 c1073-4 (Link to this contribution) It is; it happened because of the Scottish reduction. The reality is that we need to build a slight ...
Robert Syms | 516 c1074 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. For historic reasons, it will depend on where any such change...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1073 (Link to this contribution) Can we not go for equalised numbers without reducing the number of seats? I am sorry to interrupt th...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1073 (Link to this contribution) How can the hon. Gentleman explain, then, the fact that there were 659 MPs in the previous Parliamen...
Robert Syms | 516 c1074 (Link to this contribution) I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. The system that is being brought in will provide for a 12-we...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1049-50 (Link to this contribution) I rise to speak about amendments 259 and 260, which I tabled and hope to put to the vote at the end ...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1050 (Link to this contribution) The leader now sees the benefits of the alternative vote, but I do not. It is not a halfway house to...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1050 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman thinks that AV is such a mistake, why did he use it to elect his own leader, a...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 516 c1048 (Link to this contribution) In one respect I would love to help the hon. Gentleman, of course, because I would be quite happy fo...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1052-3 (Link to this contribution) I was hoping that the SNP would appoint me Fisheries Minister for Scotland, but that post would have...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1053 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Nobody could do the job more seriously than he, but right...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1051-2 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for my hon. Friend's intervention. I took history at university, but my thesis was on ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 516 c1052 (Link to this contribution) May I take this opportunity to place it on the record that I would have loved to see the hon. Gentle...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1052 (Link to this contribution) If the number of Members is reduced, the voice of the constituencies will be proportionally less in ...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1051 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely right and I agree absolutely with my hon. Friend. The real problem with the Briti...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) Order. I realise that the hon. Gentleman is making some broader points to support his amendment, whi...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1054 (Link to this contribution) But is it not also true that, especially for some of the most vulnerable people in some of the most ...
Diane Abbott | 516 c1054 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that it is unreasonable to deride one-to-one pastoral care of constituents...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1053-4 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is exactly right. Many of the ideas that I raised, the questions that I have asked an...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1053 (Link to this contribution) I have to say that I cannot. If the work is done properly and the job is properly tackled, it is dif...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1056 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman if he wishes to intervene.
David Heath | 516 c1056 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, but there is nothing magical about the figure of 600, just as t...
Anne Main | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I had a degree of sympathy with the hon. Gentleman when he was talking about the strength of the Exe...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1058-9 (Link to this contribution) I take the hon. Gentleman's point very seriously, because the allegation that there is to be constit...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1059 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is talking about the chaos that the boundary changes will create, but if this mea...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1058 (Link to this contribution) As so often, the hon. Gentleman has made a fundamental point. Given that the Government have not bee...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1059 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. A proposal that has not yet been tabled in an amendment or a...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1057 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his support. While he was making his intervention, I receive...
Lord Mann | 516 c1061 (Link to this contribution) We have had this slippery slope with the European Parliament and with how we choose its Members. Of ...
Wayne David | 516 c1060 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman refers to ““private work””. Would he like to elaborate on who might have undertak...
Christopher Chope | 516 c1059-60 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely, Ms Primarolo. I am sorry that I got slightly carried away, as a result of that intervent...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1066-7 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend asks a very good question. My lack of historical knowledge comes to the fore, because...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1065-6 (Link to this contribution) I do not wish to speak for too long, because we need to get on to the Government's plans for the imm...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1064 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman speaks with great passion, but I am not sure what his speech has to do with the a...
Lord Mann | 516 c1062-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady asks an excellent question and I shall give her a precise answer: Parliament should do...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1062 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman appears to be arguing that the Committee should not decide how many Members of Pa...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1062 (Link to this contribution) Order. We are discussing the number of Members of Parliament in the House, not how they got here.
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1069 (Link to this contribution) I did not say that I was particularly concerned about localism. I am concerned about the equalisatio...
Thomas Docherty | 516 c1070 (Link to this contribution) I am fascinated by the hon. Lady's new-found passion for quangos, which is perhaps a good descriptio...
Fiona Mactaggart | 516 c1069-70 (Link to this contribution) I share the hon. Lady's concern about democracy. I am the only Labour Member of Parliament in Berksh...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1070 (Link to this contribution) I agree in principle with everything the hon. Lady says, but I would argue that three years is quite...
Mark Durkan | 516 c1070 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady says that 600 is a reasonable figure in the same way that the Independent Parliamentar...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1068 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt), who is ...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 516 c1067 (Link to this contribution) Is there not a great danger, with the moves that are being made, that we will end up with a democrac...
Thomas Docherty | 516 c1069 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Lady for being as gracious as ever in taking interventions. Obviously, she and her ...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1071 (Link to this contribution) Why should it be 650? Why should it not be 700 or 542? Pick a number out of the hat, or do the lotte...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1071 (Link to this contribution) I should not respond to sedentary interventions, but we are not talking about turnout, as hon. Membe...
Phil Wilson | 516 c1071 (Link to this contribution) Nobody really disagrees with the point about equal-sized constituencies. What we are looking forward...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1072 (Link to this contribution) No, I have spoken for long enough. It is important to stick to equality. Once that principle is acce...
Mark Durkan | 516 c1021-2 (Link to this contribution) The amendment would represent a very important reassurance, because the Minister would not be able t...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1036 (Link to this contribution) This is what I meant by the double whammy element. Wales is caught both by the equalisation of the n...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1035-6 (Link to this contribution) As I tried to argue earlier and will argue again, that simply is not the way in which, historically,...
Louise Mensch | 516 c1035 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman speaks of inconsistency. Is it not ironic that he should use the word ““dispropor...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1035 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that the number of seats in Scotland was reduced as a result...
Mark Field | 516 c1037-8 (Link to this contribution) Given that the hon. Gentleman's concern is that this move would lead to an increase in Welsh nationa...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) Several amendments in the next group refer to how one might make provision specifically for Wales, b...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1037 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, except in one respect: the 1832 Act did not equalise the seats a...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1023 (Link to this contribution) I thank the Minister for the serious way in which he has considered the amendment. I appreciate the...
David Heath | 516 c1027 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move amendment 162, page 7, line 22, at end insert—
David Heath | 516 c1023 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady has been in government so she knows the constraints within which we work. I am very s...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1034 (Link to this contribution) All the hon. Gentleman need do is look at the figures produced by many bodies, which make it abundan...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1034 (Link to this contribution) Well, I would have been absolutely delighted if any process of consultation with Labour Members had ...
Lord Barwell | 516 c1035 (Link to this contribution) Did not the last Labour Government reduce the number of seats in Scotland, while making no changes a...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1033 (Link to this contribution) With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:
Chris Bryant | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) That was a very good intervention none the less, Ms Primarolo.
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) Frankly, that is not a point of order. The programme motion has been agreed by the House and Members...
Lord Mann | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend is getting only 250 communications a week, he needs to enhance his communication p...
Chair of Committees of the Whole House | 516 c1045 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman is making an intervention, not a speech, and I think that the hon. Member ...
Roger Williams | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) I have listened to the hon. Gentleman's argument against 600 seats, but I do not think that I unders...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) No, I am not saying that the task is insuperable. Of course it would be possible to draw up the cons...
David Heath | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) I wonder why the hon. Gentleman believes that the difference between 95% and 105% is a gross intrusi...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) That is wholly my view. That solution gets around the problems, to which I have referred, for the pa...
Mark Tami | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) ““Social work””, she said.
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) Is not the solution, as the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee has heard, to discuss what...
John Pugh | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) Whatever the Boundary Commission is asked to do, it can say that some tasks are more technically dif...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1044 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. As my hon. Friend says, she referred to it as social work. I have always believed that the ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1042-3 (Link to this contribution) No. I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman was present at the beginning of my comments—he was doub...
Lord Dodds of Duncairn | 516 c1041-2 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, given the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny and the lack of cross...
Glyn Davies | 516 c1042 (Link to this contribution) As someone who is fairly new to the House and who is listening to the hon. Gentleman and trying to u...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1042 (Link to this contribution) No. I think that that is a slightly facetious point, but we should have a day to debate a clause tha...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) The Boundary Commission will do what it is told to do. If the law of the land changes, the Boundary ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1040-1 (Link to this contribution) Yes, that is true because of the structure we have in this country. Sometimes Members talk of checks...
Susan Elan Jones | 516 c1040 (Link to this contribution) I welcome what my hon. Friend said about the balance between the Executive and the legislature. Judg...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1040 (Link to this contribution) Does not the figure of 600 point to the fundamental problem with the Bill, which is that it is spatc...
Mark Harper | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman thinks that the House requires more time to debate the Bill, why did he vote a...
Roger Williams | 516 c1047 (Link to this contribution) If an electorate of 85,000 is reduced to 75,000, how does that make it more difficult for a constitu...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1046-7 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure whether the hon. Lady is referring to her literature or her former party membership. ...
Mark Field | 516 c1048 (Link to this contribution) I believe that the compromise was perhaps made to keep the Scottish nationalists happy—[Interruption...
Mark Field | 516 c1047-8 (Link to this contribution) I must confess that I totally accept the need to equalise electorates, which is why I have tabled am...
Stephen Williams | 516 c1047 (Link to this contribution) I have read the hon. Gentleman's book, and I think that he is referring to Stafford Cripps, who was ...
Viscount Thurso | 516 c1081 (Link to this contribution) On the hon. Gentleman's last point, I could not agree more about an elected upper House. He was also...
Andrew George | 516 c1075 (Link to this contribution) Given that there will be two Front-Bench speeches in addition to other people speaking, and that two...
Baroness Laing of Elderslie | 516 c1070 (Link to this contribution) I have been insulted many times in this Chamber, but I have never, ever been compared with IPSA befo...
John Pugh | 516 c1043 (Link to this contribution) I want to calm things down a bit, and take the hon. Gentleman back to the technical point that he ma...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1041 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has clearly lost his marbles—it was because it did not give us enough time. The way in ...
Chris Bryant | 516 c1047 (Link to this contribution) That did not make it better, and it was larger in an era when the expectations of a Member of Parlia...
Chris Bryant | 516 c997-8 (Link to this contribution) We have had 51 speakers—or rather, 52, counting the Deputy Leader of the House, who has just spoken....
Phil Wilson | 516 c1076 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says it is all about equalising constituencies, something people do not necessari...
Austin Mitchell | 516 c1055 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. We cannot economise on democracy. We are a basic part of our democracy. We ...
Tristram Hunt | 516 c1067-8 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point. It is extraordinary to have begun this process without th...

Subjects

Boundary commissions
Constituency size
Alternative vote
Elections
House of Lords
House of Commons
Distribution of seats
General elections
Northern Ireland
Members
National Assembly for Wales
Referendums
Peers
Scotland
Statistics
Voting methods
Wales
Reviews

Legislation

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-12

Link

View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk
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