Marriage of same-sex couples in Northern Ireland

Part of Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill – in the House of Commons at 3:30 pm on 9 July 2019.

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Photo of Paul Masterton Paul Masterton Conservative, East Renfrewshire 3:30, 9 July 2019

I take the right hon. Gentleman’s point. I think he knows what I mean about that layer of government, but having benefited from the excellent services of Belfast City Council in my time in Northern Ireland I will uphold his comments about the quality of local governance.

We also have Members of the Legislative Assembly, who are the Members of no such Assembly. Some of them continue to do very good work in their communities but a large number do very little for the salary they are paid. We have to have this debate in the context in which it is held. That is why, as sorry as I feel for Gavin Newlands being slightly undermined by his party’s switch in position overnight, I am pleased that the SNP has at least accepted the principle of the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament. That is important, because this is the UK Parliament and, as Members of Parliament, it is our responsibility to represent and act in the best interests of all of the United Kingdom’s citizens.

I agree with Ian Paisley that it is a shame that this Bill has been hijacked. That was always going to happen. We must accept that the reason it has been hijacked is that, in this place, we have allowed this process to stumble on from six months to six months. I like the Secretary of State; she has been given a complete hospital pass in this role and she is doing the best she can. But every once in a while she has to say that the talks are going well and there could be progress. We reach a deadline, set another one and limp on, but eventually we will have to make a difficult call about how much longer we are prepared to accept and put up with that.

I come at the matter as a Scottish Member of Parliament. The system is different and the likelihood of Holyrood collapsing in this way is next to nil but, if it did, I would be so angry at every person in this place—whether I was an MP or not—for allowing that to happen. Remarks have been made about special needs education and the lack of legislation for free childcare. As the father of a five-year-old daughter who will start school in August and a three-year-old son who is going to start nursery, I would be absolutely furious if devolution in Scotland failed and led to the collapse of those services, and time and again MPs in my Parliament have washed their hands of the matter, saying, “This is too difficult. We don’t want to touch this for political reasons.”