---

Speaker's Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary Estate

No, I must make progress. None of us wants to send out the message that there is never a time or place for the police to come into this building and carry out their activities. That is not our argument. However, you, Mr. Speaker, above all, are the guardian of processes and procedures, which safeguard people's rights and liberties. Whether it is the European convention on human rights, which some people support, or the traditional rights and liberties, they are governed by process as well as substance. Process matters, and it seems to many of us that the process failed. The Government have done some good things—and have understood, at some stage, how to defend the rights and liberties of the public—but their regular fault is not being able to let go of power being transferred to Parliament. They persistently seek to manipulate what might be the broader interests of Parliament. The other day, in relation to Select Committees, which could have been more representative of the regions of England, they insisted that the Government had to have their majority and their way. I hope that Labour Back Benchers—I listened to the speech of the right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson)—realise that the question is whether we stand up for Parliament and the right of the Speaker of the House of Commons to have people deliberating independently of Government influence, or give in yet again to the Government having their way over all our procedures. We were elected to stand for the independence of this place. I hope that colleagues on both sides of the Chamber will support the amendment and say to the Government, ““I'm afraid that this is not your business. Hands off.””