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Business of the House

The Leader of the House must hope that next week will be slightly better than this week as far as the Government are concerned. I listened carefully to the Leader of the House’s remarks about the ministerial code of conduct. Lord Nolan, who knows a thing or two about it, said this in the Yorkshire Post:"““Blair should insist on ministers obeying the rules. I think that if anyone breaks the rules, they should be disciplined.””" Is it not time that we had debate on the application of the ministerial code of conduct, because people do not understand the point of a code that may be broken with impunity? Given the Home Secretary’s assurances that he is prepared, albeit in the face of almost certain defeat, to talk to Opposition parties to try to reach a consensus, it is likely that a raft of Government amendments will be tabled on Report. Is the Leader of the House prepared to re-examine how long the Bill spends on Report, which is currently scheduled for Wednesday next week, if it is necessary to extend consideration to Thursday in order to do justice to the Government amendments? Is Monday a convenient day for a statement on the funding of the council tax this year, given the Local Government Association’s expectation that on average council tax will rise by more than £100 to meet a £2 billion deficit, and the almost daily petitions to this House from constituents who are protesting about the iniquity of the present system? Finally, in a spirit of consensus, may I join the Leader of the House and the Conservative shadow Leader of the House in saying that our constituents who visited us yesterday, whose efforts went largely unreported because of the brouhaha, deserve greater recognition for raising the important issues of trade justice and ending poverty? It is time that we debated those subjects.