Speeches by Chope.

“I call Luke Akehurst, who I am afraid has been left with only a couple of minutes.”

“Order. Unfortunately, we have reached 11 o’clock, and although the next debate has been withdrawn, I do not have the discretion to extend this debate. That is something that we might consider on the Modernisation Committee, so that we have a bit more flexibility than we had today. Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 10(6…”

“First, reference was made by Sir Jeremy to my wearing a hat as a member of the Chairmen’s Panel. I have been in the Chair in Westminster Hall when I have been advised by the Clerks that a potential statement that would offend against the sub judice rule should not be allowed. I think the same is done by the Clerks when…”

“I speak as someone who was an acting Deputy Speaker for a short time at the beginning of this Parliament. There is, in practice, an enormous amount of discretion for the Chair or the Speaker to decide who will speak next, taking into account a whole range of considerations. Would introducing call lists not introduce mo…”

“Dr Kumar, you say that there is no evidence that the proposed introduction of call lists would undermine the debating role and the legislative scrutiny role of the Chamber. Surely, during the lockdown, when we did have call lists, it was just a boring procession of a whole lot of people speaking on their iPhone or othe…”

“Perhaps there is a lack of information out there about the discretion that is used. As a member of the Speaker’s Panel of Chairs, I always make allowances for people who have particular issues. They may include disability issues or all sorts of other issue, but if those are shared with the Chair or are obvious, the Cha…”

“I speak as someone who was an acting Deputy Speaker for a short time at the beginning of this Parliament. There is, in practice, an enormous amount of discretion for the Chair or the Speaker to decide who will speak next, taking into account a whole range of considerations. Would introducing call lists not introduce mo…”

“Dr Kumar, you say that there is no evidence that the proposed introduction of call lists would undermine the debating role and the legislative scrutiny role of the Chamber. Surely, during the lockdown, when we did have call lists, it was just a boring procession of a whole lot of people speaking on their iPhone or othe…”

“Perhaps there is a lack of information out there about the discretion that is used. As a member of the Speaker’s Panel of Chairs, I always make allowances for people who have particular issues. They may include disability issues or all sorts of other issue, but if those are shared with the Chair or are obvious, the Cha…”

“But being quite serious about it, does that not underline a lacuna? If we are saying that we are trying to set up a set of rules, and the rules were breached in the Hain case in the House of Lords, is there anything we should do to try to change that?”

“Why was that allowed to happen in the House of Lords? In this House, the Speaker would have intervened to prevent it.”

“Isn’t there also a legal reason why first-tier tribunals should not be covered? That is because, for example, witnesses in first-tier tribunals do not have to give evidence on oath and the tribunal judges do not have the powers of the Contempt of Court Act to hold witnesses and other participants to account if they mis…”

“So he was in breach of a sub judice rule?”

“So what Lord Hain did was not in breach of any sub judice rule—is that what you are saying?”

“Can it not be argued that, because the results of the individual parties choosing the members for each Select Committee are then reported to the House by the Committee of Selection and there is a motion on the Order Paper, which normally goes through unamended and on the nod, there is a power of the House to force a di…”

“Exactly. It is an argument against that system; it is not necessarily an argument against the revised system that I have been describing. You talk about this issue of canvassing. I think this is the point that is emerging already. At the last general election, I did not know many of my new colleagues—there were only 25…”

“The example I was taking was the Intelligence and Security Committee, where it was quite clear that there was pressure on the Government members of that Committee, who were appointed, to choose another Government-supporting member, other than Julian Lewis.”

“Is that failure something for this Committee to look at in this inquiry?”

“I have a basic question to start off with. Meg talked about the good old days. I remember when I first arrived in this place in 1983 that the then Member for Gosport spent an inordinate amount of time canvassing my support for him to be the Chairman of the Defence Committee. I could not get a word in edgeways, but at t…”

“But if they said how they are going to meet those, why is there a problem? Why does it take so long?”