New Clause 30
Greater London Authority Bill
12:00 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Throughout the progress of the Committee, one of the points that we have emphasised is the requirement for balanced new powers for the Mayor and new powers of scrutiny for the assembly. The three new clauses would give the assembly the power to call in mayoral directions and to subject them to appropriate scrutiny. Over the past two and a half weeks, the Opposition’s commitment to giving the Greater London assembly greater powers of scrutiny has been testified to by the weight of argument put by myself and my hon. Friends. All I would say is that the Minister is probably familiar, if not wearily familiar, with the arguments and I look forward to hearing him once again demolish them when he takes from his civil service brief yet another series of impeccably framed arguments against scrutiny and in favour of the unfettered exercise of Executive power.