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2,386 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I hope the statement and some of the things that the Government suggest might be in it will be considered unexceptionable when we come to it. I hope people will examine…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord opposite for tabling these amendments. Let me say that it is entirely proper, legitimate and normal to table probing amendments. There is…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillI thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this brief debate and I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Khan, as another member of the team on the Front Bench opposite for this Bill.…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I am sure that any Government’s preferred position would be to consult, but the Government believe there is a need for a contingent power here. If noble Lords object to…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillNo, it was a humorous remark for the Committee. The precautionary principle is one that the European Union applies in considering legislative activity; it is not a principle that…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillAbsolutely not—and I very much hope not. I come to your Lordships’ House to listen to your Lordships’ House, and I hope every government Minister does just the same. The direct…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections Bill10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, the groupings put before your Lordships’ House are agreed through the usual channels. I can only serve the House in the way that has been agreed through those channels.…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillI think I did set the record straight on the procedure. According to the principle of amity—I have great amity and respect for the noble Lord—I was not going to pick up the fact…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I have not had advice from the Box on this, and that is always a dangerous place for a Minister to be. However, I try to read carefully what I put before your Lordships’…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I thank all those who have spoken in the debate. Perhaps I am allowed occasionally to speak as an individual from the Dispatch Box as well as a Minister, and I have not…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections Bill10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, we will come to that document later. The specific recommendations taken up in these proposals were those of the Pickles committee in 2015.10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillI would have done so slightly quicker if the noble Lord had not intervened. The suggestion before the House, which I will deal with later, is that the Government are attempting to…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillI anticipate that we will discuss all those things. I intend, if nature allows, to be present for every hour of Committee on this Bill and every hour on Report, and to give full…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillOkay, I take that as a yes: that the noble Lord would like to reject the whole Bill. I will be interested to see in Committee if that is the position of the Labour Party. As I…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillNo, and the noble Lord, for whom I have the greatest affection, is never slow in coming forward in such debates. Indeed, he used the amendment to say that the whole Bill should be…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillI am grateful for that, and I do know that that is the Labour Party position. I was pointing out that the noble Lord sat at the back might not actually have the support of the…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillNo, I said that what was before the House was not a clause stand part debate. I will address the amendment before the House. The proposal to excise Clauses 14 and 15 comes later…10 Mar 2022HANSARDElections BillMy Lords, I thank the noble Baroness opposite for her kind remarks at the outset, and make clear that I have been privileged by and welcomed the discussions I have had with her…10 Mar 2022