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House of Commons (Participation) Bill

If I can just make a little more progress. It is worth looking back at what the Conservative party, when it was the Conservative and Unionist party, used to say about these issues. The hon. Gentleman’s history of the problem jumped from somewhere around the early 18th century to 1970, conveniently missing out the 1960s, when the debate was the reverse. The then Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, infuriated by the participation of Northern Ireland MPs in the Bill to nationalise the steel industry, wrote:"““We ought to make up our minds about the idea which I aired last Spring, that Northern Ireland MPs should not have the right to vote in the House of Commons on purely domestic matters affecting Great Britain, where the Stormont Parliament has exclusive jurisdiction…in relation to Northern Ireland.””" That proposal was passed to the then Attorney-General, who thought it was unworkable. The shadow Home Secretary, Peter Thorneycroft, responded, asking the Attorney-General to"““make it absolutely clear that that kind of nonsense does not form any part of the government’s thinking, that every Member of the House of Commons is equal with every other Member of the House of Commons, and that all of us will speak on all subjects””." Shortly afterwards, when English Conservative MPs were being whipped to oppose the abolition of school fees in Scotland—a measure with considerable political support among the great majority of Scottish MPs—the Conservative spokesman, Michael Noble, said:"““I do not find it an atom embarrassing to have to ask my English colleagues to come to the House this evening and vote against the clause””." In other words, when it was in the interests of the Conservative party to take diametrically the opposite view to what is being proposed today, it had no hesitation in doing so.