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Mr. Bradley: That is the second U-turn that I have heard from the Conservative party this week.
The Conservatives want to hold the Government to account. They want tougher scrutiny of Ministers, Departments of State and policy. In launching the Norton report earlier this week, the Leader of the Opposition said;
- The people of Britain deserve a stronger Parliament, better government and a revived and refreshed democracy, and I believe it is our duty to provide it.
Mr. St. Aubyn: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Bradley: I would prefer to make a little more progress, but I shall be delighted to give way if the hon. Gentleman will be patient.
Mr. St. Aubyn: On that point--
Mr. Bradley: No. The hon. Gentleman will recall that I almost lost my voice trying to intervene on his party leader. I only preserved enough of it to make this speech. [Interruption.] If the hon. Gentleman made more appearances in the Division Lobbies--I hear from my hon. Friends from a sedentary position that he is 400th out of 650--perhaps I would recognise him better when he sought to intervene on me.
Mr. St. Aubyn: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Bradley: No, I will not give way. The hon. Gentleman can huff and he can puff, but I am on my feet.
The House of Commons Library has just published a digest of Members' participation in Commons Divisions. This is not my interpretation--not my spin. These are the figures from the House of Commons Library. The average attendance at votes by Labour Members of Parliament is 67 per cent. It could be argued that that is not high enough--I am sure that the Whips would agree. The Liberal Democrat participation in votes is a pretty woeful 57 per cent. That is woeful, but it is as nothing compared with the average participation of Conservative Members of Parliament in Divisions, at 54 per cent.
Mr. St. Aubyn: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Bradley: No. I may give way later, but I want to make progress. I have more to say.
I have also studied the returns from November to April. As my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Gillian Merron) said, the top Conservative came in at 208, and there were only five Liberal Democrats in the top 200.
The Leader of the Opposition made much of the voting records of Cabinet Ministers. I can tell the House that the Home Secretary outscores the shadow Home Secretary. Perhaps the right hon. Lady is too busy promoting her books. The Secretary of State for Social Security outvotes his opposite number. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury votes in 80 per cent. of the votes, compared to 52 per cent. for his opposite number. I could go on. Is that why hon. Members on the Opposition Front Bench are called shadow Ministers? If turning up and voting is a test of what the Leader of the Opposition called
- "a stronger Parliament, better government and revived and refreshed democracy",
On Monday, in launching the Norton committee report, the Leader of the Opposition referred to his experience
- as a former member of the Select Committees, as a former Minister who has been cross-examined by them.
-
He said:
I agree that we need to make them stronger and we need to start with the membership.
Angela Smith: Has my hon. Friend had an opportunity to examine the Standing Committee figures? He may be doing the Opposition a great disservice; there was a tremendous attendance from Opposition Members on two of the Standing Committees on which I have served. They turned up in force for every sitting of the Committee that considered the Minimum Wage Act 1998, to try to stop the minimum wage, and they did so on the Committee that considered the Wild Mammals (Hunting with Dogs) Bill, so as to protect fox hunting.
Mr. Bradley: My hon. Friend must not rush me; I have not finished with the Select Committees. On some of the most important and controversial policies, the Conservative performance is the worst. On the Education and Employment Committee, their turn-out rate is 34 per cent.; on the Trade and Industry Committee, it is 43 per cent.; on the Health Committee, 52 per cent. They say that they are the pensioner's friend on the Social Security Committee--
Mr. St. Aubyn: Will the hon. Gentleman give way, as I am a member of a Select Committee?
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Michael J. Martin): Order. All the hon. Member for Guildford (Mr. St. Aubyn) has to do is ask the hon. Gentleman to give way. There is no need to offer credentials when asking to intervene.
Mr. St. Aubyn: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is it not the custom of the House to give hon. Members the opportunity to respond to any attack that is made specifically on them?
Mr. Deputy Speaker: We are having a debate; there was no attack as such.
Mr. Bradley: There is a convention to allow injury time in such debates, for which I am grateful. If time allows, I will certainly allow the hon. Gentleman to intervene.
On the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon (Angela Smith), Conservative members are no better at attending Standing and Delegated Legislation Committees. Their attendance on the Committee that considered the Care Standards Bill, of which they made so much last night, was as low as 69 per cent., compared with Labour's 89 per cent. On the Fifth Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation, from 2 December to 7 June, it was 73 per cent. compared with Labour's 95 per cent. If they are not doing their job--I suggest that they are not--where are they?
Mr. David Taylor: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Bradley: No, no; I must be impartial in not giving way.
I shall tell the House where Conservative Members may be. As other hon. Members have suggested, the Register of Members' Interests shows that, while 14 per cent. of Labour Members have outside interests that may take them from the House, the figure for Conservative Members is 73 per cent.; and that 40 of the 64 Front-Bench spokespersons have outside interests. No wonder they have no time to hold the Government to account, to scrutinise or to do the job of the Opposition.
Mr. Taylor: Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Bradley: No. I want to conclude my remarks before my time is up.
If the Conservative voting record is poor in office hours, it is even worse in the evenings--at 52 per cent. However, my analysis does not show how many Conservative Members turn up to vote in their dinner jackets.
I do not want to be complacent about the need for change. Change is needed, but that was not the purpose of today's debate. We do not need to take lessons from Conservative Members. They are failing in their duties. They are so incompetent that most of the damage that the Government have sustained in recent years has been self-inflicted. They are so ineffectual that the media and the press think that they have to do their job for them. They should be judged not on their rhetoric, but on their record. Their record clearly shows that they are no more than part-time parliamentarians, less interested in Parliament than in their pay cheques. That is the reason why they are no better in opposition than they were in government.
5.39 pm
Mr. Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield): First, may I apologise to hon. Members for being absent for part of the debate after the opening speeches? I had to leave the Chamber to chair the Select Committee on Procedure, and I returned as soon as it had finished taking evidence from a Minister.
The debate is about the relationship between Parliament and the Executive, and I follow the closing remarks of the hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mr. Bradley) by saying that I hope that I am accepted for my record in this place and for no other reason. I have limited outside interests. I am a full-time politician and I take my work in the House extremely seriously. It may be appropriate if I, like my right hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Brooke), refer to the Committees to which I belong. I am a member of the Modernisation and Liaison Committees, I am a member and the Chairman of the Procedure Committee, and I also sit on the Select Committee on Standing Orders. In addition, I am the senior member of Madam Speaker's Chairmen's Panel and one of four members of the panel appointed to chair sittings in Westminster Hall. I hope that that shows that I take my job in the House very seriously.
I say to the hon. Member for The Wrekin that I have been a Back Bencher for all the 29 years that I have had the honour to serve the people of the county constituency of Macclesfield in the House of Commons. I have relished that job, and in answer to people who ask, "Nicholas, why have you never got anywhere in politics?", I explain, "God gave me a mouth and I have used it." That has not
always endeared me to the establishment, whether that establishment be my own party or the Labour party in government.I take the role of Back-Bench Member of Parliament very seriously, whether it be scrutinising legislation in the House or looking after the interests of my constituents in Macclesfield or my constituency as a whole. I also take seriously a constitutional role of the Opposition, which is to oppose. For that reason, I am deeply concerned about some proposals in the latest Modernisation Committee report, which is yet to be debated in the House. However, as those Members who take an active interest in these matters know, it will be debated in the roll-over period. I shall hope to catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker, or that of another Deputy Speaker. I was about to refer to Madam Speaker, but who knows what the position will be after 23 October?
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