I am very grateful. It was in fact a complete mystery to me that the House was voting, because in preparation for my speech I had, correctly, turned off my iPhone, so there was absolutely no way I could have known that a Division was taking place. If any Members of the Grand Committee have already heard anything of what I have said, I apologise most sincerely. The repetition will probably be quite different, because I was seeking to respond to the debate that had taken place, rather than just to read some prepared remarks.
I know the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency quite well. My brother has lived there for more than 60 years. I went there on a number of occasions to support Richard Livsey and Roger Williams, distinguished Members of Parliament there. I spent a lot of time with local farmers there, understanding only something
of what they were saying, because my Welsh is non-existent, and I found it extremely important to know something of the communities to which other Members have referred.
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The whole way in which this debate has taken place has emphasised two really important propositions for general consideration as we continue discussions about the Bill. First, it is a classic case where local circumstances should determine some important decisions by Boundary Commissions. That would apply elsewhere. Secondly, as my noble friend Lady Humphreys said, there are implications for adjoining constituencies, in mid-Wales certainly, and in north Wales as well. I know that other members of the Grand Committee will share that view.
Once you start making a special provision for any constituency it has implications, but, as has also been said, once the Government have decided in their wisdom that there will be protected constituencies, for whatever reasons and whatever they will be, they have to admit that there is a perfectly acceptable proposition that the 5% margin will not be universally applied. That is extremely important for the discussion we had at Second Reading and in the Grand Committee. It is clear that Members on all sides of the Committee are very uneasy about the approach currently in the Bill.
I want to be absolutely clear that when there was a discussion in 2011 on the previous Bill—I was involved in the discussions with our Conservative Party colleagues and partners in the coalition—there was no principled adoption of 5%: absolutely the opposite. There was a pragmatic, political discussion about whether it would be more appropriate to move to 10% and it was only the resistance of the Prime Minister at the time, who did not wish the House of Lords to make the running on this issue, that stopped 10% being accepted universally throughout the United Kingdom as a variance to either side, plus or minus, of the quota.
The noble Lord, Lord True, referred again to the Conservative manifesto this afternoon. The manifesto makes no reference to any percentage, certainly not to 5%, so the idea that somehow the country has voted to limit the variance to 5% is simply unacceptable. Even in current circumstances, when manifesto commitments in other directions are being torn up, there is no commitment here to tear up, so I hope that it will be possible for the Government, and the Minister in particular, to look again at the very powerful and persuasive arguments that have been put forward in Grand Committee and by so many Members at Second Reading that 5% is simply too limited and too inflexible and should be removed.