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Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House

One of the points that I made was that we failed to get to the bottom of everything, even afterwards. We have just had a succession of inquiries from outsiders, who have made far better progress than Committees of this House, which is tragic. That is a reflection of the powerlessness of Parliament, rather than just the decision itself—I made both points. Parliament became Mr. Blair's poodle, at least until Iraq—things began to change after that—and our job now is to try to make sure that after the next election it does not become the poodle of my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) or the current Prime Minister. We must link that with the idea that our starting point must be to work out what Parliament is for, as the hon. Member for Cannock Chase said. We need Parliament, in order to legitimise Government, to hold the Executive to account and, most importantly, to force the Executive to explain their actions. That is a requirement of any healthy democracy, and in order for Parliament to do that, some independence of mind must be shown on the Back Benches, along with some sense of responsibility when exercising their powers.