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Home Affairs and Communities

I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) on his speech. He clearly did his homework. We heard enough to demonstrate that he will be an asset to his party and the Chamber. I also congratulate all other hon. Members who made their maiden contributions. However, I want to single out one speech that I heard in the course of the five hours or so that I have been listening to the debate. I happen to disagree with almost everything that the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) had to say, but he said it superbly well and demonstrated what a pro he is. He made it clear that this Chamber is the venue for political argument and debate, not the TV studios or the newspapers. He did us all a service by making that contribution. I welcome the Government’s approach to law and order. We have been tough-minded and have ducked none of the difficult decisions. We do not have to take any lessons from the Conservatives on law and order. When they were last in power, the reality was that crime doubled. When their current leader was Home Secretary, he ducked the difficult issues. He blamed his prison chief when things went wrong and dumped on his ministerial colleague when he should have been man enough to stand up and accept the blame. My honest judgment is that the shadow Home Secretary demonstrated today that he is not tough enough to display the leadership skills that are required if he hopes to be Prime Minister or Home Secretary. He has to get off the fence. It is quite simple. Now, by contrast, our Home Secretary is a consensual politician. He is a man of the utmost integrity and one whom I have been proud to work with. I can say to him clearly and bluntly that whenever he has to take tough decisions, I will back him and support him, even if those decisions are unpopular, because one has to do the right thing when it is required. Saying that, I hope that my ministerial colleagues will recognise that some criticisms that I will make later in my contribution are well intentioned. I make them because I think that they should be heard; they are intended to be constructive. I want to make a simple observation about the general election: we won the arguments in the general election. It is pure fantasy for a party that gained fewer seats than Michael Foot did in Labour’s disastrous 1983 election to claim a partial victory. It is a figment of the Leader of the Opposition’s imagination. The scriptwriters for ““Doctor Who”” could not come up with a better storyline; it is complete and utter nonsense. I have to say—I am angry about it—that the fact that the right hon. and learned Gentleman had the cheek to call our Prime Minister a liar during the election was a disgrace, and it damages the politics of this country. The Leader of the Opposition’s whole election campaign was based on spin and fantasy, and the British people rejected it. He should come to terms with that. I turn now to some key points in the Queen’s Speech. I believe that ID cards are right, and the Government will have my total support when the Bill is reintroduced. It is ridiculous that the major Opposition party can attempt to abdicate responsibility on an issue of this importance; it beggars belief. It is absurd for the Liberal Democrats to take an as yet unidentified sum based on a charging system that they are opposed to and pretend that they would then use it for a different purpose. That is complete and utter nonsense, and you will not be able to get away with it. You said during the election—