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7.9 pm
Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood): I declare an interest, although it is not in any sense remunerated. I am the elected president of the London Green Belt Council, which as hon. Members know exists to represent the interests of varied groups all around and within Greater London, to ensure that its beautiful green belt spaces are preserved.
The Secretary of State said at the outset that the Bill would produce a measure offering greater power to the people of London. I wish that it were so. I am delighted that Opposition Front Benchers have supported in principle the establishment of a voice for London, but that voice should be as democratic as possible. To me, this is the starting point, and it is the fundamental principle upon which I diverge from the Government. I voted against the abolition of the Greater London council because the then Conservative Government, whom I supported, did not offer a residual, slimmed-down strategic authority for London which could speak for the capital's interests within London, and to Government and in the councils of the nation as a whole. That, however, is for the history books.
We must address a most interesting measure. The hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone) has much experience in these matters and, as usual, he made an original, interesting and relevant speech. He described the Bill as "a package of powers leading to regional government for England." I do not share those wider objectives but the Bill has some features that are common to the prototypes of regional government which we have established both in Wales and Scotland--most particularly, the method of election for the assembly men.
I earnestly wish that the assembly were drawn up of elected representatives from each borough. Opposition Front Benchers, quite reasonably and with much cogent force, argue for those representatives to be the borough leaders. I do not believe that borough leaders should be diverted from their primary task, which is the leadership of their boroughs. To me, that is a full enough occupation, and I think that any ancillary work would be more than most borough leaders could reasonably be asked to fulfil. They are not even fully paid professionals. Many of them have other occupations, and I do not think that it would be sensible to expect them to travel backwards and forwards to central London to fulfil their obligations as assembly men as well as borough leaders. However, I recognise that my view is a personal one.
I shall argue this through if I am fortunate enough to be selected as a member of the Standing Committee. I spent long enough in the Royal Air Force to know that one should never volunteer, but like the hon. Member for Brent, East, I do volunteer. It should be a most interesting Bill to consider in Committee. As we discovered so often during extremely entertaining speeches when considering the Greater London Authority (Referendum) Bill of 1997, the devil will be in the detail.
I asked the Secretary of State, quite specifically, what the formula was for the election of closed-list assembly men. They are the minority of 11, but an important 11. Those 11 people will be in the privileged position of having no constituents. They will not have as much work to do as the others but they will probably have the same salary. They will not have the onerous constituency responsibilities--they will be mega-constituencies--as the other 14 assembly men.
I asked the Secretary of State what the electoral formula would be. The right hon. Gentleman did not know. At least, he could not describe its operation. It is the familiar d'Hondt formula. I do not really understand it but I hoped for some instruction from the right hon. Gentleman. I thought that the payroll was paid to fulfil an educational function of that kind. However, if the Secretary of State cannot understand the formula, how is the average Londoner to comprehend it? To revert to the question of democracy, I think that a comprehensible electoral system is fundamental to any credible electoral process.
The constituencies will be mega-constituencies of two or more boroughs. I do not think that that is right. Directly elected Members of the European Parliament showed us what that tended to mean. The average elector saw little of his Euro Member. Following the precedent that some colleagues on the assembly will not have constituencies, I suspect that we shall see little even of our constituency assembly men.
I shall take a parochial view. We all do so because it is the way in which we judge most political processes. In Hillingdon, we shall be linked with Ealing. Hillingdon and Ealing do not have much in common apart from the fact that they are contiguous. However, Hillingdon is equally contiguous with Harrow in the north and with Hounslow in the south. I suppose that the compromise was to choose Ealing in the middle. That does not especially satisfy my constituents in Ruislip-Northwood. It may not--I hate to presume this--please the constituents of the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (Mr. McDonnell) in the south. Apart from being a compromise, I do not see what there is in the linkage for the residents of Hillingdon.
In democratic terms, I think that the assembly will be a step backwards from the old Greater London council. The GLC was a much more democratic body. There was one member for each parliamentary constituency. We usually came to know very well our local GLC representative. Ruislip-Northwood had a most distinguished GLC member. Indeed, Sir Cyril Taylor went on to become sheriff of Greater London. Many constituencies formed a close individual link with their Greater London council members.
Again, to take the parochial perspective which I think is typical among the electorate, it is important that there should be someone elected for Hillingdon. After all, Hillingdon has London Airport; and in the Harefield ward, which is in my constituency, it has probably the greatest expanse of green belt in the whole of London. In area, the Harefield ward is as large as the borough of Islington. It has most of what is left of rural Middlesex.
Under the proposed system of election, there is no guarantee whatever that we shall have any representative with a particular understanding, first, of air transport matters, which are so important to those who live round Heathrow and derive their livelihood from the airport.
Secondly, there is no guarantee that the area will be represented by someone who has any special understanding of rural and green-belt issues, which are so important to my constituents in Harefield. That, then, is the problem with the assembly.
What about the mayor? I am probably very old fashioned but I suspect that the electorate understands what I am saying. I prefer first past the post. I do not like any jiggery-pokery with the figures once the votes are cast. The person who receives the most votes should be elected. I cannot see the merit in the supplementary vote system whereby the second preferences of those who are eliminated because they happen to have done worst--not first or second--count more than the second preferences of those who came first or second. That does not seem logical to me. If it is not logical to me, I doubt whether it will be logical to most of London's electors.
Mr. Gapes:
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that in an election with six, seven or 10 candidates conducted under a first-past-the-post system there is the dangerous possibility of an extremist racist candidate winning with perhaps 20 per cent. of the vote? A supplementary vote would guarantee that such extremists would not win.
Mr. Wilkinson:
Again, I am old-fashioned. I believe in the wisdom of Londoners to choose an appropriate person for the job. It is fundamental that we should trust the electors to exercise their discretion. I imagine that the hon. Gentleman's reasoning lay behind the Secretary of State's stipulation that there should be a threshold of5 per cent. of the vote below which a candidate could not be returned to the assembly.
I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's point, except to the extent that it reinforces my argument with the hon. Member for Brent, East that the mayor, once elected, should be accountable. He will have huge powers of patronage over bodies such as the London development agency and the transport body for London. Offices of the greatest importance will be within his patronage. He should be checked and scrutinised and should be removable from office by a majority vote of the assembly. Co-operation and effective collaboration between the mayor and the assembly will be central to the efficacy of the Greater London authority. Londoners need to know that a mayor who misbehaves because he is racist, corrupt, lazy or inefficient can be removed easily.
The reasoned amendment so wisely drafted by my right hon. Friends also mentions the effects on transport in London. The transport functions of the authority are probably of most interest to Londoners. We all suffer from traffic congestion and the difficulties of public transport. I deeply regret the fact that the Secretary of State has not made more progress with the reform of the London Underground.
We are told that the tender process for the three infrastructure companies may not be completed until 2000. That is a long time for the bids to be open. In most commercial tenders there would be a much shorter period. Judging from the Labour party's manifesto for London, Londoners would have expected the Government to have in place by now--or, if we are being very generous, at least by the end of this year--a new system for running transport in London effectively.
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