Clause 31 - Power to pay grant
Local Government Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat)
You are tempting me, Mr. Conway. For the comfort of hon. Members on the Conservative Benches, I shall not go down that road.
I made the point in the pamphlet, and the Leader of the House of Commons has complimented me on some of the analysis in it—I sent him a copy, which he
claims to have read—that when one compares the supply process in the House with almost all other Parliaments in the western world, especially those in the OECD, ours is an absolute disgrace. We do not analyse the Government's budget and spending proposals in any way. The last time that the House rejected an expenditure request from the Executive was in 1919, and that was a request for money for a second bathroom for the then Lord Chancellor.
I told the Committee that I could wax lyrical on the issue. I feel passionately about it. That is why I cannot understand why we should want to give the Executive even more powers, over and above the huge powers that they already have. People are elected to this place to hold the Government to account for the way they spend taxpayers' money, and we have given up on that task. Frankly, the history of the matter shows that we never really bothered to take on that task in any meaningful way. I hope that the Minister will show us why we should trust him with extra powers that will mean that there will not be scrutiny of grants made to local authorities.