To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the name of the bridge currently under construction over the Thames at Dartford; and if he will make a statement.

No decision has yet been taken on a name for the new bridge.

My hon. Friend will appreciate my disappointment with his answer. Will he confirm that the bridge will be named after neither Dartford nor Thurrock? Will he also pay tribute to all the men and women who have worked so hard to make the bridge a reality in north-west Kent?

I am happy to pay tribute to all the people who have worked on the construction of the bridge and to those who have been lobbying for it to be given one name or another. My hon. Friend is speculating and I could not possibly confirm or deny what he is saying.

Does my hon. Friend accept that the one person to be neutral was the Chairman of the parliamentary Committee which sat for many weeks to discuss the matter and that, in tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mr. Chapman), who has now gone into the silence of the Whips Office, perhaps the bridge should be called Sydney's bridge?

That is a novel suggestion which will be taken into account in the coming weeks.