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Home Affairs

My hon. Friend makes that point well and strongly. The Committee is served by very good officers, who are well established in their posts. It clearly decided that it did not need to wait for a change of personnel to get on with its work after the change of Government. It clearly decided that it wanted to address the major issues on its agenda, and it did so. It has not been prevented from doing so, and I am sure that it can do so during the first week back or the recess. It has the power to decide to meet in the recess, and to call people in front of it at that time. It is perfectly competent as a Select Committee, and it is able to continue. I hope that the Leader of the House understands that if she is to go on as she started—she has done extremely well in all her appearances so far—she has to win the confidence of the House by seeking to reflect its will. To depart from that style and decide to impose by a whipped vote a change to Standing Orders in two major respects, on the last-but-one day of the summer term, in order to force through a controversial change of personnel in one of the most important Select Committees, will do great discredit to the prospective, positive reforming work that she and her right hon. Friend the Prime Minister have begun. I would like to make two last points. The Select Committee has been put in a very difficult position, as has the hon. Member for Walsall, North. I am sorry that he is in that position; it is not his fault at all. I am sure that if people had thought about the matter and been asked about it, they would have realised that there was another way forward, which was to delay matters. Lastly, there has been no answer to this question. If the Government say that it is a matter of timing, why did they not manage the process in such a way that the Committee of Selection could have met to conduct its business last week? It could have met last week, Monday, yesterday, or this morning. It did not meet at any of those times. It was standing by, ready to meet, and willing and able to assist. The Government have made a mess of this. It is their mistake, their maladministration and their incompetence. On behalf of all of us—party Members and independent colleagues—I say that we cannot let the House be steamrollered by a completely inappropriate motion on the last-but-one day of term. I hope that the right hon. And learned Lady realises that it is in everyone’s interests if she accepts that the motion can be withdrawn. Let the Home Affairs Committee do its work, and we can come back to the matter after the summer break, when we are all fresh and, if I may say so, not driven to be so bad tempered.