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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, I will be brief. I thank the Government for listening to what the House of Lords said on my amendment and for the decision that they have taken. My amendment was special in that we were dealing with an island that has only ferries connecting it to the mainland. I said in moving the amendment that it would allow there to be one or two constituencies on the Isle of Wight. The Government have decided to be specific and make two, and that is the right decision. The only other options would have been to have one massive constituency on the Isle of Wight or, alternatively, a cross-Solent constituency. That cross-Solent constituency would have meant there being one constituency on the Isle of Wight itself, with the remaining 35,000 electors put together with part of, say, Portsmouth on the mainland. It would be divided by 10 miles of the Solent, with expensive ferries being the only means of communication. The constituency would be partly on the mainland and partly on the island. It is all very well to talk about community but the natural centre of that constituency would have been in the middle of the sea. There is no doubt that such a solution was rejected decisively by the people of the Isle of Wight. Eighteen thousand people signed a petition against it. The councils were against it, as were all the parties—the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives. In our previous debate the Minister suggested, without overstating his case, that there were some who had written in support of a cross-Solent solution. Very courteously, as always, he offered to investigate how many had done so. Unfortunately his reply was not entirely convincing. In his letter of 7 February, he said: "““You asked how many representations received about the Isle of Wight were in favour of the Bill’s original proposals and how many were against. The Cabinet Office does not record correspondence in a way that would enable us to readily identify whether the authors were for or against particular issues””." Perhaps that is just as well in the Minister’s case, although it raises a few questions about the value of writing to the Cabinet Office on any issue. To be fair, the Minister went on to say that he, "““was not seeking to claim that there were an equal number of representations received both for and against the Bill’s proposals””." The Minister was absolutely right. I congratulate him and the Government on reaching the decision that they have. It has been a very long process but the Government have listened at the highest level and the Commons has decided. I thank all those concerned with this campaign, particularly the excellent Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight, Andrew Turner, who has worked long and hard to achieve this outcome. No one could have done more. I also thank my supporters in the vote on 19 January from around the House—from all parties and the Cross Benches—including those who found pressing engagements when the vote was called and abstained. I thank the opposition Front Bench; it is the first time in my political career that Labour Whips have provided Tellers for any Motion or piece of legislation that I have introduced over the past 40 years. I make just one further comment. Given the progress of the Isle of Wight debate, no one can be happy with the heavy timetabling in the other place. I know that it is inherited from the previous Government but it prevented the island’s MP putting the issue to the vote before it came to the Lords, and virtually prevented him making a speech. I hope that the Government will now look anew at that procedure. Having said that, this amendment, which the Lords have carried and the Government have accepted, seems to me to carry out the traditional function of asking the Commons and the Government to think again. They have done so and I congratulate them on their good sense and on the outcome.