Contributions
129 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Brexit Readiness: Operation YellowhammerI always enjoy listening to my right hon. Friend, but I am always slightly conscious when he moves from answering questions to displacement activity. Can we go back to the issue…25 Sept 2019HANSARD Prime Minister's UpdateWill the Prime Minister therefore take this opportunity to give an assurance to the House that should the terms of the Bill apply to him, rather than trying to die in ditches, he…25 Sept 2019HANSARD Legal Advice: ProrogationI am extremely mindful of the difficult task that my right hon. and learned Friend has as Attorney General in providing advice to Government, and I am sorry if his legal advice…25 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way, and I am sorry to take him back to the issue about Prorogation and its origins. Would he like to explain at the Dispatch Box…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)No, I will make a bit of progress. What I have attempted to do, distilling the information that has been made available, is to identify people where I think the information may be…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)The hon. Lady is right. That is what concerns me so much, and I think the House collectively ought to pause and consider it this evening. She will be aware that the next thing…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)Seeing that this would be a Humble Address to Her Majesty the Queen for the documents, I very much hope that there could be no question other than that they will be provided,…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)Yes, indeed, and of course that might have provided another opportunity to ask questions. I appreciate that this House can sometimes be difficult and irksome to Prime Ministers…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I understand my right hon. Friend’s point. That was a matter that exercised me very much before I decided to table this motion, but against that, we have to face up to another…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)If I may say to my right hon. Friend, last week, at Prime Minister’s questions, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Hertfordshire (Mr Gauke) and I asked questions of…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)My right hon. Friend is right on both points, and I shall move on in a moment to develop in a bit more detail the issue of the documents.09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of prorogation with the imminence of an exit from the European Union and accordingly resolves— That an Humble Address be…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I agree wholeheartedly, and I do worry, because this Prorogation is, to my mind, a most regrettable event. It will prevent the House from giving proper scrutiny to what is, as I…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I would, but I also emphasise—and that is why I emphasise it—that these are allegations, and in an ideal world, I would have preferred not to make allegations, even within the…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)I rather hope that the assurances and the terms of the motion would prove to be entirely identical. I see no reason why not, and such documents that have been revealed so far do…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)The right hon. Gentleman raises some very difficult points. The best thing I can do is simply to state openly the generality of it. He is, I think, correct in what he says: far…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)If I may say this to my right hon. Friend, I think not. I think that the terms of the motion cannot be abandoned unless the House wishes to abandon them. I cannot believe, on the…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)My hon. Friend is right about our long association. She is also right, of course, having worked in the Treasury Solicitor’s Department, where I am quite sure she maintained at all…09 Sept 2019HANSARDProrogation (Disclosure of Communications)No, I can think of no such event. Indeed, it is the Treasury Solicitor’s Department and the Law Officers’ job to make sure that anything the Government say in litigation fulfils…09 Sept 2019