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Manchester City Council Bill [Lords] (By Order)

My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) and my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) may remember that a Select Committee was set up in the other place to look into this matter. Is the research likely to be carried out by Durham university superior to that of a House of Lords Select Committee? The argument that my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) is now making—that it would be much better to have a blanket Bill covering all pedlars—was quite rightly rejected by Lord Bach, the Minister in the other place, who said that because of the dissimilarities between one borough and another, it was much more appropriate to bring forward individual Bills. He said that the Government had no intention of bringing forward a portmanteau Bill of the type that my hon. Friend is suggesting.