All 16 results for gordon brown segment:23167219

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: In thanking the Leader of the House, the shadow Justice Secretary and the right hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Michael Moore) for introducing this debate, may I join all three of them in congratulating all those Conservatives, Liberals, Labour supporters, all those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as those in Scotland, who were part—

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: Madam Deputy Speaker, I wanted to congratulate all those who had contributed to the historic and clear decision of the Scottish people to stay part of the United Kingdom. As someone who has had time to reflect—four years, courtesy of the decision of the British people—may I say that I believe there is also common ground on not just the timetable for the delivery of further devolution to...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will pursue my argument and then I will give way. It is a bit much for the hon. Gentleman to want to intervene on me before he has heard what I have had to say. I have to tell the House that the fundamental question is not the one the Leader of the House was trying to raise; the fundamental question affecting the British constitution is not the West Lothian question. That is a symptom of a...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will give way in a minute, but I want first to develop this argument. Every generation has had to come to terms with how we get that balance right between majority rule and protecting the needs of the minorities that are part of the United Kingdom. Although on 19 September there was contentment and satisfaction, including, I am told, right up to the centre of Buckingham palace and...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will give way in a minute. Clearly that was a change in Scotland’s status in the United Kingdom. Clearly it was highly material to the vote people had just had. Should not the people of Scotland have been told prior to the referendum, which was on Scotland’s status in the United Kingdom, that the downgrading of Scottish representation in Westminster was one of the proposals that he now...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will give way in a minute. What makes for a lethal cocktail—the Leader of the House did not even appear to recognise this—is that the Conservative party, as confirmed by the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr Redwood), wants to devolve 100% of income tax to the Scottish Parliament. This is not the nationalist policy or the Labour policy; it is the Conservative policy to devolve all of...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will give way to the man who is the author of English votes for English laws.

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: Why then, when the McKay committee reported, did the Government say that it needed only a thorough and rigorous investigation and did not support that view? The Prime Minister did not tell the Scottish people before the referendum that that proposal would come on the morning after the referendum.

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I will give way in a minute. It is the combination of the two proposals to devolve 100% of income tax and then to remove the right of Scottish MPs to vote on the matter in Westminster that is absolutely lethal to the constitution. Let us be clear about the impact of this plan. The Leader of the House is free to intervene and to confirm whether this is indeed his plan. Scottish representatives...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: rose—

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: It is whether one talks sense in this House that matters. I believe—I am happy for the Leader of the House to confirm this—that there is a basic truth that this restriction on one group of MPs from voting on central issues such as Budget tax decisions ignores, and that is that we cannot have one United Kingdom if we have two separate classes of Members of Parliament. We cannot have...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I signed up to a vow that I will keep. It was the Prime Minister, on the day after the referendum, who qualified the promise. We would be better off in this House if we had some humility from Members of the Scottish National party, who in their own constituencies found that 55% to 60% voted no and not yes.

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman. I am coming to that and to the proposals that might solve that problem without creating two classes of representation in this House of Commons. The answer has to be that when one part of the Union is 84% and the others are 8%, 5% and 3% respectively, we cannot secure the status of each nation through a blanket uniformity of provision. Indeed the...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I am going to answer the point that I am sure the hon. and learned Gentleman is about to raise. I do not underestimate, and I have reason not to underestimate, the concerns of the English people. I also understand the sensitivities that have been mentioned. There are ways in which they can be dealt with in the Union, without disrupting the status of Members of Parliament in this House and by,...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: The hon. and learned Member for North East Hertfordshire (Sir Oliver Heald) has not been listening to what I have said. I have been talking about the need to balance recognition of majority rule with sensitivity towards the minorities. What he is saying would apply to the United States of America, Australia and all the countries I have mentioned, where he would deprive the minorities of the...

Bill Presented: Devolution (Scotland Referendum) (14 Oct 2014)

Gordon Brown: I gave way once to a Scottish National party Member, and that was quite enough. It has long been said that the British constitution does not work in theory but works in practice. Make the change proposed by the Conservative party—to devolve income tax to the Scottish Parliament in full and then deprive Scottish MPs of the right to vote on the Budget—and the constitution will not work in...


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