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Parliamentary Reform

One thing that the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) did not speak about—unsurprisingly, because she is a one-Member party in this place—was the way that the Whips operate. One of the things that I found when I first entered Parliament was that the infantilising impact of Whips on Members of Parliament was quite damaging and it shows in some of the issues that my hon. Friend is raising. Every Member of Parliament is different. Every Member of Parliament brings different experience and represents a different type of constituency. We need to find mechanisms whereby those differences, within the context of party agreement, can effectively be aired so that we get the best legislation that we are capable of making.