Debate on the Address — [Ist Day]

Part of Outlawries Bill – in the House of Commons at 8:04 pm on 8 May 2013.

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Photo of Sir David Amess Sir David Amess Conservative, Southend West 8:04, 8 May 2013

I congratulate the proposer and seconder of the Humble Address. One does not often have the opportunity to address the full House, so it is a big occasion. Both of our colleagues acquitted themselves extremely well.

I enjoyed the speech by the Leader of the Opposition. I did not agree with any of its content, but now that there are no Liberals in the Chamber, I can say that he certainly made the best joke of the day when he made his remarks about the Liberal party.

Moving on to the speech by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, I support all the measures in the Gracious Speech. This Government have cut the deficit by a third, created more than 1 million private sector jobs and kept inflation under control, all while taking the 2 million lowest-paid people out of tax altogether and cutting corporation tax to 23%.

The one measure in the Gracious Speech that troubles me, which has been mentioned by Kate Hoey, my hon. Friend Sir Tony Baldry, my right hon. Friend Mrs Gillan and Keith Vaz, is the high-speed rail link. Many of us were here when we considered the Bill on the channel tunnel rail link. Many Conservative colleagues were genuinely upset about the effect on their constituencies. Sir Keith Speed in particular had a tricky job to balance the needs of the nation with those of his constituents. However, that was an entirely different project from the current high-speed rail link. For the life of me, I cannot understand why we will spend so much money and upset so many people in order to get to the end of the line 20 minutes sooner than would otherwise be the case. That is absolutely ridiculous and I hope that the Government will think again.

Like my right hon. Friend Mr Mitchell, I had no local elections in my area last week because it is a unitary authority. However, we certainly did have elections in Essex, and Essex gave its view on a number of issues that had nothing at all to do with the local elections.

I had no idea when I asked my question at the last Prime Minister’s questions that my own mother would have such an influence on the outcome of those elections. Prompted by her, I asked the Prime Minister whether he would bring the referendum forward to accommodate my mother. There does not appear to be anything on the matter in the Gracious Speech, but it does say:

“Other measures will be laid before you.”

I have a hunch that the referendum will be brought forward.

I said to my constituents that we could not have a referendum sooner than the Prime Minister had proposed because we did not have the votes to legislate on it.

However, I am now keen to put it to the test. If I am drawn in the top four or half dozen in the ballot for private Members’ Bills next week, there will be no point in anyone lobbying me, because I will be proud to promote a Bill on a referendum. I hope that like-minded colleagues would do the same. Mr Kennedy seemed to dismiss anyone who voted a certain way last week, which I thought was rather arrogant. We cannot dismiss thousands of people who voted a particular way.