Disqualifications Bill — 25 Jan 2000

Not amended in the Committee, considered.

Order for Third Reading read.

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

Having had a fairly friendly afternoon of it, I do not want to be too controversial now. Let me just say that I do not think that the last 24 hours have been very helpful to the situation in Northern Ireland, or shown the House of Commons at its best.

The Conservative Front Bench did not oppose Second Reading. It seemed to me that it lost control of a number of its dissident Back Benchers, who then created an entirely new situation which took the Front Bench down the garden path. At various stages of the debate, I was not entirely clear about how Conservative Front Benchers were approaching the matter. At one point, they were saying that this was not a constitutional outrage; on other occasions, it seemed almost as though other Conservative spokespersons were suggesting that it was.

Mr. MacKay:

What unites Conservative Members--and, I believe, Liberal Democrats and Unionists--is our belief that it is an outrage to arrange a Second Reading debate on the Monday and then, after the Minister has said--in response to me--that the Bill constitutes neither emergency nor urgent legislation, to bulldoze the measure through, allowing a Committee stage and a Report stage with no time for reflection. That, I think, unites all the Opposition parties, and I believe that it also unites certain Labour Members who are disgusted with the way in which the Government bulldoze through legislation while ignoring the House of Commons.

Question put, That the Bill be now read the Third time:--

The House divided: Ayes 326, Noes 141.

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