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Business of the House

I thank the right hon. and learned Lady for giving us the business. Most of us in the House will be pleased that the case of the arrest of my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green) has now been satisfactorily resolved. Even though the issue became rather heated, surely we should now stand back and study the implications of what happened. May I therefore ask the Leader of the House to reflect on early-day motion 1307? [That this House notes the statement of the Director of Public Prosecutions on 16 April 2009 announcing his decision that no charges would be brought against the hon. Member for Ashford in relation to the documents leaked and stating that, 'Mr Green's purpose in using the documents was apparently to hold the Government to account'; and calls for the House to be given the opportunity to debate a motion to refer the matter to the Committee on Standards and Privileges.] Will the Leader of the House support the motion that was originally tabled on the Order Paper before the Easter recess to ensure that the House can refer this matter to the Committee on Standards and Privileges as soon as possible? Now is the best time to learn the lessons of this affair so that all the confusion can be cleared up for the future. It is no good her saying that the Attorney-General's opinion was that there was no confusion, because there was. There is a perfectly good process available to us, and we should invoke it; will she confirm that she will co-operate in doing so? We have still not had a satisfactory report on what the Leader of the House intends to do about the policing of Parliament square. On Monday, the road was shut all day. When will she tell the House how she intends to stop Parliament square becoming a site of permanent protest? May we, perhaps rather esoterically, have a debate on road signs? We have heard this week that the Government intend to ram through their proposals on reducing national speed limits. Can we have the right hon. and learned Lady's absolute guarantee that this will not lead to a new forest of pointless metal poles and bossy signs that completely wreck the landscape of our streets? Will she ensure that Government policy is designed to reduce street clutter as much as to reduce accidents? More importantly, may we have a statement and a full explanation from the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families? Yesterday, in highly significant evidence to the departmental Select Committee, Dr. Ken Boston, the former head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, accused the Schools Secretary of smearing his name by, as he put it, "sexing up" evidence and dodging the blame by presenting "untrue and false evidence" to last year's inquiry into the SATS fiasco. ... This is the same Minister who is implicated in much of the propaganda and, indeed, economic collapse associated with his Prime Minister—so much so that the poor man has even become— ... I will move on, Mr. Speaker, but I was responding to a sedentary intervention. I assure you that I had notified the Secretary of State of what I intended to do, but I hear what you say—it is understood. I would certainly say, however, that he should explain himself at some stage about what has happened and is being seen on television and read about in our press. May we have a debate on the guarding of Budget secrets? By yesterday morning, we were already aware of several of the Chancellor's headline schemes, including the car scrappage and HomeBuy initiatives. Is there to be an inquiry into these indiscretions? Obviously, it is unthinkable that Ministers would ever have passed those details to journalists themselves, but will the Leader of the House deplore such leaks and urge an investigation? On Tuesday, the Prime Minister published his proposals for reforming our system of expenses. If I may be a little personal, may I ask whether the right hon. and learned Lady feels sufficiently appreciated by the Prime Minister? Does she feel that she can still be the guardian of Parliament's voice in the Cabinet? Is it not clear that she was completely bypassed by No. 10 and then bounced into making a written ministerial statement, as the presentable face of Government, after the Prime Minister's deeply weird statement on YouTube? Is it really true that No. 10 has said that Labour Members who do not vote for the Prime Minister's proposals will be deselected? How can she possibly defend his barmy plan for an automatic daily allowance, for which no receipts will need to be presented, as an improvement on what we have already? May I take this opportunity to wish the right hon. and learned Lady a happy St. George's day? I hope that I am not too much of a dragon against this maiden in distress. In the spirit of St. George, will she now renew her pledge to fight for the rights of this House, the freedoms of the country, and the power of MPs to scrutinise and hold to account an unsuitable and arrogant Executive? ... Different issues.