Clause 7
Greater London Authority Bill
12:30 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
The Minister has only herself to blame on this occasion. The more she explains, the more obscure the justification becomes. She has talked about the GLA’s vital role in scrutinising executive responsibilities. The GLA has exercised its scrutiny function, and it has said that such an accretion of executive responsibilities to the head of paid service is wrong. She cannot say that the GLA should restrict itself to scrutiny, and then say when it expresses an opinion, “These people are wrong, I personally find the matter not particularly interesting and, as ever, executive convenience should come before scrutiny.” That is no way to deal with the governance of London.