Orders of the Day — HOUSE OF COMMONS (REDISTRI BUTION OF SEATS) (No. 2) BILL

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 2 July 1969.

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Photo of Mr Derek Walker-Smith Mr Derek Walker-Smith , Hertfordshire East 12:00, 2 July 1969

The hon. Member for Barons Court (Mr. Richard) said that these debates take a predictable form, with predictable speeches. Whether that was meant as criticism I do not know. If it means consistency, that is not necessarily a Parliamentary vice. Certainly, the hon. Gentleman overdid his pursuit of consistency, because he appeared to be retailing to the House excerpts from speeches which he had previously made. However, they were no less enjoyable for that. I pay him this compliment. I do not think that he will be minded to think it an exaggeration that, in identifying a point at issue and in identifying a point of law, he is markedly superior to the hon. Member for Ebbw Vale (Mr. Michael Foot), to whose points I shall come later.

I am not concerned with the detailed provisions of the highly selective boundary adjustments provided for in the Bill, but with the general question of its constitutional propriety, or impropriety. It is not that the contents of the Bill may not be some guide to constitutional propriety or otherwise. I have not made an elaborate study of party advantage following on the provisions of the Bill, but I know what the effect will be in the area of which I have detailed knowledge.

Hertfordshire, East has over 85,000 electors. To the east, the west and the north there are other large constituencies. But there is this difference. Hertfordshire, East and, to the west, Hertford, represented by the noble Lord, are Conservative constituencies. Those to the east and to the north are Labour constituencies at present. By some no doubt politically convenient statutory coincidence, the Home Secretary is bringing relief to the under-representation of the constituencies to the east and to the north, with their Labour representation, and denying it to the constituencies with Conservative representation.

My hon. Friend the Member for Hertford (Lord Balniel) and I are not asking for any change. We are not among those making representations to the Home Secretary. We like our constituents and we think that they like us. But, by a deliberate act of policy, and clearly contrary to the statutory rules laid down, the Bill will create electoral disparities of about 20,000 in that area in a way which clearly points to party advantage as a powerful motivation for adjustment.

This is the Bill, with its partisan provisions and suspect origins, by which the Home Secretary seeks to meet the charge levelled against him of breach of duty and breaking the law. Apart from the Bill, there is no defence to what is a clear breach of statutory duty.

On 19th June the right hon. Gentleman had had the Report of the Boundary Commission for two months, so he was already in breach of his duty to lay a draft Order in Council to give effect to its recommendations. He now bases his defence on Clause 1, on the omnipotence of Parliament to put a cloak, not of respectability, because that would not be possible, over his actions, but a cloak of immunity to his breach of the law.