Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 8:15 am on 10 March 2005.
The hon. Gentleman's latter comments were on message, but I suspect that his initial remarks were off message, as far as Labour Members are concerned. First, those laws are good laws. [Interruption.] The Labour Government adopted them and did not reverse them. If those laws are so bad, why have the Government not taken the opportunity to deal with them? Secondly, those laws do not touch on the liberty of the subject, which this Bill does, and they were not timetabled with knives, which this Government have used ruthlessly.