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Liaison Committee

My Lords, I support my noble friend, Lord Forsyth, with whom I do not always agree but I do emphatically on this occasion. I

am troubled by one or two issues here. First, as the Senior Deputy Speaker has pointed out, we should be doing this at the beginning of a new session. This session has gone on and on and has certainly earned a place in the history books, even though it has not perhaps earned its place for parliamentary excellence. I am very troubled by all the talk about prorogation. I would like an assurance from someone on the Government Front Bench—not, of course, the Senior Deputy Speaker, who is not in a position to deal with this point—that the present Government have absolutely no intention of bringing this Session to an end at a time that would be convenient for the Government but not for Parliament.

3.15 pm

This is a very important constitutional issue that reaches to the top. I had intended to speak briefly on the third group of Motions that the Senior Deputy Speaker will move. However, because my noble friend Lord Forsyth talked, entirely reasonably, about his committee, which appears in the third group, it would clearly be for the convenience of the House if we had one brief debate. I will raise just two issues.

First, what is the point of clearing out the European affairs committee? Surely an exception should have been made there. With all the talk of 31 October and a clear desire to move towards Brexit, it is surely wrong to dispose of the services of those who have served faithfully on the committee for some years and to replace them, perhaps for a matter of two or three months, with new people who are not so conversant. This point should be taken seriously.

My second point in respect of the third group of Motions—my noble friend Lord Forsyth has touched on it—is to ask how these committees are selected. “By the usual channels”, somebody murmurs sotto voce behind me. Have we not reached the stage where your Lordships’ House, which prides itself on its expertise and experience, should be able to choose Members to sit on its committees in a rather different manner? The other place has moved over to electing not only the chairmen of Select Committees but all their members. I suggest that the time has come when perhaps there should be a committee, presided over by the Lord Speaker, which is not just the usual channels but has the chance to cast its eyes a little wider than is sometimes the case and to avoid the sort of anomaly to which my noble friend Lord Forsyth referred when he said that he had six good men and true. I am sure that they are, but it does not reflect the diversity of your Lordships’ House and it does not reflect modern practice. I hope that the Senior Deputy Speaker will feel able to take these points on board, because they are worthy of consideration.