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Business of the House

I thank the right hon. and learned Lady for giving us the future business. Yesterday, the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Justice published an update of the Department's organisational review, in which the National Offender Management Service could be abolished, on the Ministry's website. Why is that important announcement being made by a civil servant and not by a Minister, and on the internet rather than to the House of Commons? On Monday the Leader of House said that she was the ““policewoman in the Cabinet””, enforcing the ““Parliament first”” rule, whereby statements are made first to Parliament, not to the media. Will she make a statement to the House about why the Prime Minister went to Basra for a photo call, announced a troop withdrawal to the media before he came to Parliament and shamefully double-counted the number of troops coming home? The Prime Minister keeps boasting that he has dealt with the outbreak of foot and mouth, but as he crows, the livestock industry has lost £135 million, the EU export ban remains for much of the country and the official inquiry is reported to blame a Government facility for the outbreak. We will, as the Leader of the House has just announced, have a debate on this in Opposition time next week, but when the inquiries currently under way report, can we have full debates in Government time on the lessons to be learnt? On Tuesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his pre-Budget report proposed action on inheritance tax, on non-domiciles, on aviation tax and on the simplification of national insurance and PAYE. Where the Conservatives lead, this Government follow. Can we have, therefore, a debate on the protection of intellectual property rights? With this Chancellor, as with his predecessor, we always have to look at the small print. The new Chancellor said that his PBR included an ““affordable tax cut””, but far from cutting taxes he is increasing taxes on families by £2,600 a year and there is a £2 billion raid on pensions. The inheritance tax threshold has not been doubled; the Chancellor is just taking credit for what half a million families already do. The Prime Minister's last Budget was a tax con, the Chancellor's first PBR is a tax con, so can we have a debate on the Government's tax cons? Incompetent, lacking in vision, with the same old spin—the Prime Minister is running scared of the people's verdict. Yesterday in Prime Minister's questions his excuse for not calling an election was that only 26 people had signed a Downing street petition calling for one. I checked the website this morning and there are now 4,408 signatures and rising. Can the Leader of the House arrange for the Prime Minister to give us an update on the petition every week in Prime Minister's questions? The Prime Minister is running scared of a general election and he is also running scared of a referendum on the renamed European constitution. That is despite the fact that the Labour Chairman of the Labour-dominated European Scrutiny Committee says:"““the red lines will not be sustainable…eventually all of the treaty will apply to the UK.””" Can we have a debate in Government time on the report of the European Scrutiny Committee? Finally, if the Prime Minister wants to prove that he is not a bottler, why does he not keep his word and give us the referendum that he promised?