Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 6 January 2015.
Gerry Sutcliffe
Labour, Bradford South
11:30,
6 January 2015
Twenty-odd years ago, before I came to the House, I was the leader of Bradford city council. At that time, there was great budgetary flexibility and councillors were able to have flexibility as to how they spent the money—that flexibility has now gone. Should we not be looking at merging some of these councils in order to cut the bureaucracy?
We should keep the accountability but seek to merge some of the bureaucracy to improve the conditions for West Yorkshire.
The office of Deputy Prime Minister is one that has only existed occasionally in the history of the United Kingdom. Unlike analogous offices in other nations, the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any of the powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence and there is no presumption that the Deputy Prime Minister will succeed the Prime Minister.
The post has existed intermittently and there have been a number of disputed occasions as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
More from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom
