Orders of the Day — Requisitioned Land and War Works Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 February 1945.

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Photo of Captain James Duncan Captain James Duncan , Kensington North 12:00, 13 February 1945

The Attorney-General, who is to reply to this Debate, at any rate cannot start his speech by saying, as Ministers so often do in replying to Debates, that the Government are gratified by the reception which this Bill has received, because practically every speech to which I have listened has been highly critical of the Bill. I believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a grave mistake on political and procedure grounds, and if this Bill has had a bad reception to-day it is the Chancellor's own fault. He knew quite well, he had had representations made to him from various quarters, he had been told the points that were to be raised, he had been given opportunities of withdrawing the Bill and rewriting it with the Amendments to which he has referred, or even of introducing the Bill and placing the Amendments on the Order Paper, as we are allowed to do nowadays, so that Members could see in advance what the Minister's intended Amendments would be, but he took none of those courses.