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Mr. Hancock: Will the Minister give way?

Janet Anderson: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I do not. I have only a few minutes left, and the hon. Gentleman said that he wished to hear what I had to say.

I hope that what I have said will reassure him, but let me make one final point to provide him with yet more reassurance. The leader of the council has given me an absolute assurance that, in the very unlikely event of the council's ever having to underwrite the operating costs of the millennium tower, there will be no question of its front-line services being cut as a result.

The hon. Member for Gosport mentioned a leader in the 2 October issue of the Portsmouth paper The News. Let me repeat part of what that paper said:

"when the Portsmouth South MP gets his teeth into something, he doesn't let go. But he is as wrong about the harbour's millennium tower now as he has been all along . . . Mr. Hancock never wanted the tower but he has lost the argument and it is time he accepted it."

The Government's opinion in this matter is straightforward. We believe that the Millennium Commission has made the right decision in agreeing to support the renaissance of Portsmouth harbour project, and we hope that the negotiations will soon be resolved in the interests of the people of Portsmouth and Gosport. We invite the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South to join us in that desire.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes past Ten o'clock.

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