Power to Give Financial Assistance

Part of Clause 50 – in the House of Commons at 5:45 pm on 14 June 1988.

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Photo of Simon Hughes Simon Hughes Shadow Spokesperson (Education), Shadow Spokesperson (Health) 5:45, 14 June 1988

This is a case of Opposition 3, Government I. The Leader of the House was a bit premature. Had he waited until the next debate, he would have been moving the Adjournment halfway through the groups of amendments and new clauses selected by Mr. Speaker. We are on the 56th such group and there are 58 still to come. Perhaps the most telling point of all is that a substantial number—nearly half—of these amendments and new clauses have come from the Government. Of those remaining to be debated, 73 were tabled by the Government. Since we started debates on part III, almost exactly 12 hours ago, substantial time has been spent on Government amendments and new clauses. The Government have had to concede that their management of the business has shown that they are unable to deliver their own legislation in the time that they had planned.

The Bill was always going to be controversial. It was bound to be more controversial when the Government decided to add to it almost as much again by way of amendment. This came not in the days immediately after the Committee and the original day for Report in April, nor in the days between Committee and the revised date for Report in May, nor between the Committee and the second revision of the date for Report in early June, but between that second revision and the eventual date for Report in mid-June. By that stage, we should have had some sign of what the Government were going to propose, but it was not until the final hours available for tabling new clauses and amendments that the Government tabled this mass of proposals.

Not only that, but the substantial proposals that the Government said that they would show to the House before Report have still not been seen. The major matter of a social charter for tenants is still a matter of mystery, shrouded in confusion and followed everywhere by uncertainties.