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Speakership: House Committee Report

: My Lords, essentially we have heard two arguments about why we should reject the House Committee’s recommendation to us. One is that the SSRB has fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the job of a Speaker of this House. The other argument, which the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, put forward, was basically that he did not want it in the first place and now he does not see why the taxpayer should have to pay for it. That argument has already been settled in the House. It is really the SSRB recommendation that we should concentrate on. The noble Lord, Lord Barnett, said that we never normally oppose SSRB recommendations. The noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, said that he has the greatest admiration for the SSRB. Both noble Lords then went on to qualify those statements. The noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, said that the post was like no other; the noble Lord, Lord Barnett, said the job was unique. Our House Committee—our elected committee—knew that the job was unique, yet it was perfectly prepared to send it to the SSRB. The SSRB is indeed a committee which we trust with our own allowances. This House is like no other. If we are prepared to overturn the SSRB recommendation on the basis of the unique role of this House, we might start questioning some of the other issues rather closer to home. I do not think that these arguments stand up. Our committee knew what it was doing by sending the issue to the SSRB. The SSRB knew what it was doing in making the recommendation it did back to our committee, which accepted it. It has been through three decision points already and now comes to us again today. This House is hugely undervalued. It is undervalued by another place. It is hugely undervalued in virtually every conversation I hear about it—in the media and elsewhere. If we undervalue it in the way that has been suggested by some noble Lords this afternoon, we will have only ourselves to blame if it goes on being undervalued in the way that so many of us object to.