Orders of the Day — Identity Cards Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:47 pm on 20 December 2004.

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Photo of Patrick Cormack Patrick Cormack Conservative, South Staffordshire 5:47, 20 December 2004

My right hon. Friend will know that I am grateful that there is a motion on the Order Paper to send the Bill to a Joint Committee, but what shall we do if the Government refuse to heed that good advice, and then move the ridiculous programme motion that obliges us deal with the Bill under a guillotine before the end of January, although we do not come back from the recess until 10 January? That places many of us who are not doctrinally opposed to the Bill in a difficult position. I am speaking not only to my right hon. Friend but, through him, to the Home Secretary, whom I am asking to think again about the appalling answer that he so dismissively gave me when he said that he would not consider a Joint Committee.