HC Deb 17 February 1992 vol 204 cc17-8
33. Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will make it his practice that all parties represented in the House by hon. Members who have taken their seats are included in consultations by him as to the business of the House.

Mr. MacGregor

No. The present arrangements are of long standing, they work well, and I see no need for change.

Mr. Hughes

The right hon. Gentleman has undermined his growing reputation as a fair-minded and modernising Lord President. Will he consider his answer again, and grasp the old nettle? Given that only two parties the Government and the Labour party—are now formally involved in consultations, and given that in electoral terms all parties in the House are minorities—

Sir Donald Thompson (Calder Valley)

No, they are not.

Mr. Hughes

All the parties are electoral minorities. In the light of that, is not the only fair-minded and democratic way of conducting our business to allow it to involve all properly represented parties in the House of Commons throughout the United Kingdom?

Mr. MacGregor

The discussions take place between parties which represent the vast majority of the hon. Members in the House. Setting the business of the House is a complex process and final decisions are often taken at a late stage. I do not believe that it is practicable to consult all eight minority parties represented in the House and I do not know what we should do with another minority party in the guise the hon. Members for Coventry, South-East (Mr. Nellist) and for Liverpool, Broadgreen (Mr. Fields). The hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) will know that the minority parties are given a chance to make representations about business of the House and are informed of it. I think that that is the only sensible and practical way to deal with the matter.

Mr. Winnick

As virtually everyone seems to have been informed that the general election date will be 9 April, could not the Leader of the House ask the Prime Minister to make an official statement this week confirming that date?

Mr. MacGregor

I can only say that the hon. Gentleman knows something that I do not.

Dr. Cunningham

Why is the right hon. Gentleman being so coy? We all know that the Government have a timetable for an election on 9 April. Even the Financial Times has told us that the Prime Minister has booked his aeroplane for that date. Since we now have almost weekly guillotine motions and the Government are intent on railroading legislation through the House, why can the Government not make an announcement so that we all know where we are? The country would then know what the Government's intentions are, much of the business which does not have widespread support in the country could simply be junked, and we could get on with the election.

Mr. MacGregor

The hon. Gentleman is quite wrong. There is widespread support for Government legislation and for those matters on which we have had timetable motions. I have been under pressure to get on with the legislation because many people want to see it in place.

On the other matter that the hon. Gentleman raised, all that is being done represents good contingency planning for the election date, whenever that might be.