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

I had not intended to speak in this debate, just as I had not intended to be a member of the Wright Committee, but my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) and the Minister for Borders and Immigration, my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham, East and Saddleworth (Mr. Woolas), persuaded me that the Committee needed my thought processes. I will admit that I did not take a leading part in proceedings, but I would like to think that I have wholeheartedly backed my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) as he has taken the Committee through some quite treacherous waters. What I have done, however, as my hon. Friend knows, is to try to engage with my constituents in parallel with all this. It was pleasing to hear what the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) said in that regard, but I went one step further. I contacted every household in my constituency, which involved sending out something like 46,000 survey forms. I must say that I used the communications allowance for that, but that is absolutely what it should be used for. [Interruption.] We just asked them to say what they thought about a range of issues such as electoral reform, reform of the House of Lords, recall of parliamentarians and spending limits. We had 7,000 replies, which is pleasing, especially considering that they were in stamped, addressed envelopes and that people had to make the effort to respond. We accompanied the survey with a series of meetings. I am eternally grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase because he came along with Peter Hennessy, who is a professor at Queen Mary college, and Peter Facey of Unlock Democracy to our final meeting at which there were about 150 people who wanted to discuss all manner of issues to do with constitutional reform. I do not go along with the view that it is entirely the chattering classes who are interested in such issues. I accept that the economy and housing, health and education will always be more important when it comes to people's voting preferences and opinions, but constitutional issues matter to many people. They matter not a little when people see this place not representing them and when they see the mess that we have got ourselves into. I feel wiser from having taken part in those proceedings, and I certainly feel more engaged with my constituents as a result of how we were able to proceed on some of the relevant issues, and I intend to continue doing that. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase knows, I was also elected to the Back-Bench committee of the parliamentary Labour party, although I did not manage to survive on that for as long as I survived on the Wright Committee. Perhaps people sussed out that my stance on renationalising the railways, keeping the Post Office public and withdrawing from Afghanistan was not quite what the rest of the Labour party, in a parliamentary sense, was prepared to go for. However, I am pleased that I was part of the majority opinion on the Wright Committee that wanted reform and that we did things consensually. Of course, we had our disagreements—there was a minority report, which was from a minority—but we have made progress. Given my nature, I take quite a narrow approach to what I want to do; I have always found that it is better to know what we want to do and to focus on it. I have a very simple request: I have believed ever since becoming a Member that it is absolutely wrong for the Whips to decide who serves on Select Committees and, more particularly, who does not serve on them. It is part of the important role of parliamentarians that, if they want to take part in a Select Committee, provided that there are enough places, they should have the right to do so. First, preventing them from doing so does not allow them to be parliamentarians in the true sense of the word, because they cannot engage in that aspect of scrutinising the Executive. Secondly, I have never understood where the Whips were coming from because that is perverse psychology. If those are the most awkward people in Parliament, the best place to put them is on a Select Committee, which uses their time and expertise far better than having them run around the House, tabling all sorts of motions that cause embarrassment to the Government. I therefore tried to persuade the Whips on numerous occasions that those are just the sort of people whom they want to serve on Select Committees. The good thing is not just that we will elect Chairmen through the process of Parliament, but that we will, through our party groups, have an open process of electing people on to Select Committees. Of course, not everyone can necessarily get on to the Committee that they want. If they do not curry favour with their colleagues, they will not necessarily get on to a Select Committee. However, they at least have the right to put themselves forward, and it is up to their party as a whole, rather than a small group of individuals, to decide whether they will serve on a Select Committee.