Westminster View September 2024

Westminster View

Gale's Westminster Diary - September 2024

And so it came to pass. The `flurry of hyper-active legislation ` to which I referred at the end of my August scribblings included the Great British Energy Bill which I am scheduled to chair through its committee stages and therefore may not comment upon and of course, the Winter Fuel Allowance Statutory Instrument and subsequent Opposition Day Debate on the same subject.

It may to some seem strange that we should have first voted on the measure necessary to deprive an estimate four million pensioners of their Winter Fuel Allowance in order to fund Chancellor Reeves, inflation-busting pay increases demanded by the public-sector unions, and then to debate the same subject that has just been carried by Labour`s massive parliamentary majority, but such is democratic life. The “SI” as it is called warrants just ninety minutes of debate on the floor of the House which, once you have allowed for Front Bench Speeches from the now wide variety of parties represented , the Father of the House and others of the great and the good and then front-bench wind-up speeches, does not allow much time for the very many MPs, not only on the Opposition benches, to express considered and critical opinions on a matter of enormous importance and concern to very many of our elderly constituents.

The `Leader` of the Reform group of MPs did not speak on the SI but voted against the measure before, predictably, eschewing the following debate and heading off to the television studios where he clearly feels rather more at home than in the chamber of the House of Commons. We were also joined, in the Opposition lobby, by a small but significant number of Labour members, including several of the `old and bold` who ignored the threats and blandishments of the Government Whips` Office and to do what they knew to be right. Having voted and having inevitably been defeated we then used what is called an `Opposition Day Debate`, one of a number of such slots during which the Official Opposition determines the subject to be debated and voted upon, to expose the paucity of the Government`s argument rather more thoroughly. Even given this opportunity the sheer weight of numbers of those wishing to participate – again from both sides of the House – meant the almost immediate imposition from the Speaker`s chair of a three-minute time-limit upon contributions. Three minutes might not seem long but if you bear in mind that you can sell a bar of chocolate on television in thirty seconds then, with the cute assistance of a timely intervention from a colleague that wins you another minute of `injury time`, it is surprising how that `unforgiving minute` can turn into sixty seconds` worth of distance run! So we spoke, and we voted again and of course we were again defeated but while we lost the vote there is no doubt who controlled the moral high ground – and it was not the Government of the day.

The cut in Winter Fuel Allowance does not sit well or comfortably when many members of the Government, up to and including the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, are revealed to have had their snouts in the goody-trough! It seems that freebies in the form of pop concert and football match tickets and clothes have been the unpaid for order of the day. Even `Lady Vic`, as the Prime Minister`s wife apparently likes to be known ( `Queen Vic` might be more appropriate but I gather that that title has already been awarded to a soap-opera pub!) has sported couturie, haut or otherwise, provide by generous donors. Not of course that those donors expect anything – a peerage or a pass to Downing Street for example – in return. Perish the thought! Add to that the revelation, leaked by disgruntled Number 10 goblins, that the Prime Minister`s Chief of Staff, Shades of Gray, is paid more than her boss and we have the ingredients of a perfect storm. We are told, though, that the Prime Minister is `completely in control`!

I have been around the block for a while and I have seen members on both sides of the House cover themselves with ordure rather than glory but I cannot recall a time when I have seen an administration, sparing that of Mrs Truss which can scarcely be described as an `administration` at all, unravelling so fast. Notwithstanding a massive parliamentary majority ` Sir Freeloader`, as the press have re-dubbed him, now presides over what I think is known as an `omnishambles` while his personal poll ratings have plummeted to freezing levels.

This, in part, is what has led my colleague and neighbour Rosie Duffield, the Member of Parliament for Canterbury, to quit the Labour Party and to choose to sit in the House with a growing number of Independent MPs. Rosie has shown great courage and faced considerable online and public abuse in voicing her opinions in relation to transgender and other contentious issues.. Her letter of resignation to Starmer was excoriating and spelled out very clearly how the Prime Minister and her Party had, instead of supporting her, left her swinging in the wind. Her colleagues, she said, `were more about greed and power than making a difference`. I wish her well on our Opposition benches.

It should surprise nobody that Mohammed Fayed , who liked to use the affectation of the prefix `Al` to which he was not entitled, should have been revealed in a television documentary as having abused large numbers of women employees during his time as the proprietor of Harrods of Knightsbridge, as the owner of Fulham Football club and other enterprises. Those of us who have had dealings with this repulsive man can only marvel that he was able to get away with so much for so long and it is a pity that his crimes are only now coming to light after his death. There were, I believe, two dossiers presented by the Metropolitan Police during Fayed`s lifetime but for reasons that to some will seem incomprehensible were deemed insufficient to warrant prosecution. Refresh my memory. Who was the Director of Public Prosecutions during much of that time?

Fayed has now been judged by his maker but it is clear that he was aided and abetted in his actions by some of those close to him, many of whom are still alive. Is it too much to hope that they, at least, will have their collars felt?

Finally, and although I have abandoned the `valete` element of this column, I would like to pay tribute to that consummate thespian, Dame Maggie Smith who has died at the age of 89. Dame Maggie will of course be remembered for her performances on the screen in “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey” but those of us who have been privileged to see her perform on the West End stage will mourn the loss of one of the truly great actresses of our time.