Parliamentary Boundary Commissions (Amendment) (Hansard, 20 January 1998)

§ Mr. Richard Page (South-West Hertfordshire)

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986. The Bill stems from my natural care, concern and compassion for my fellow Members of Parliament. The House will remember that, on 1 May, despite the Government of the day having given the country the best set of economic circumstances for decades, the public decided to give a large number of Conservative Members the opportunity to spend more time with their families. That did not happen to me, but from me were taken my red boxes, which I do not much regret, and my ministerial car, which I miss greatly.

When I settled into the spacious green Benches on this side of the Chamber, I looked across and saw an horrific sight: Labour Members—new Labour, old Labour, new Members, old Members—crammed together, cheek by jowl, hip to hip, thigh to thigh, in a most unsatisfactory sardine-like condition. My concern grew when I learned—not many people know this—that 50 Labour Members are sent home every week to spend more time with their families and constituencies because they are not needed in Parliament.

That made me think even more. The conditions on the Labour Benches are sometimes such that, if this was an industry and we had a visit from a health and safety officer, he would not hesitate to close the whole lot down on the ground of unsanitary or unsafe conditions. It is time to start considering reducing the number of Members of Parliament, because the situation has changed.

So much European Union legislation is now done by the Commission or the Council of Ministers that the House just does some rubber-stamping. There is an argument for reconsidering how we handle European legislation. The Scottish Parliament is working its way down the track; it will take time and powers away from the House. The same is true of the Welsh assembly; our next business will remove powers from this House and give them to the Welsh assembly. The various regional bodies that are to be set up will again take power from the House. The amount of legislative work is not as great as it used to be.

Under schedule 2 to the 1986 Act, we cannot have fewer than 613 Members of Parliament. The way that it is set up, with minimum numbers of Members for Scotland and Wales, predicates to the boundary commissioners that every review must mean that the number of seats goes up. We are now at the large number of 659. Over the next four or five Parliaments, it should be reduced to about 400 to 450, with 100,000 people per Member of Parliament.

People will argue that turkeys will not vote for Christmas, but I believe that my Bill would make the job of an MP easier. How many hon. Members have come to the Chamber to demand statements or ask questions and not been called? How many have prepared speeches that have gone undelivered? With fewer colleagues, individual Members would be more satisfied and much more effective. Commensurate efforts would have to be made to ensure that secretarial allowances and Members' salaries were increased because of the extra work.

819 The overall savings to the House would be about £100,000 per MP, if we consider salary, secretarial allowance and the allowance for living away from the constituency, leading to a total saving of some £23 million. The big saving would be that 200 MPs' offices would no longer be necessary. The strain on the Palace's infrastructure would be reduced. That would lead to much more efficient operation. If we add the reduction in the number of questions that flow through the Table Office to Government Departments, further tens of millions of pounds would be saved.

With changing circumstances, we do not need as many MPs as we have now. There should be about 200 fewer. The Bill would enable the House of Commons to operate much more effectively. I have much pleasure in introducing the Bill.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Richard Page, Mrs. Cheryl Gillan, Mr. Nigel Evans, Mr. Peter Atkinson, Mr. Quentin Davies and Mr. Richard Shepherd.