Orders of the Day — British Coal and British Rail (Transfer Proposals) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:17 pm on 18 May 1992.

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Photo of John Prescott John Prescott Shadow Secretary of State, Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport 4:17, 18 May 1992

I have heard various Secretaries of State for Transport make the same speech from the Government Dispatch Box. They have not lasted long in the job, and the transport industry has been in a worse state at the end of their periods of office than it was when they started. If the Secretary of State pursues the same negative approach to transport, I can envisage only his removal from the job. It seems that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster intends to review the record of each Secretary of State to decide whether he or she is up to the job and should remain in it. If that is the position, and bearing in mind the Secretary of State's speech this afternoon, the right hon. Gentleman does not have much chance of passing the test of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which is whether he is able to run his Department competently.

I think that the right hon. Gentleman is the eighth Secretary of State for Transport to appear at the Government Dispatch Box over the past 13 or 14 years. I had some doubt whether the Secretary of State would continue to have a Department when Brian Redwood said during the "Today" programme—[HoN. MEMBERS: "Brian Redhead".] The same fools are back after the election.

Brian Redhead said that he wondered whether the Department of Transport would be an independent Department. When the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster came into the Chamber, apparently to debate the paving Bill that will lead to the privatisation of British Rail, perhaps that was a sign that what Brian Redhead was talking about was taking place. I see the Secretary of State for the Environment sitting next to the Secretary of State for Transport—