Speeches by Campbell.

“There needs to be balance in that. It is about getting it clear in our mind, from a Government perspective, what the role of Parliament is, and respecting the role of Parliament to talk about the things it wants to talk about. Getting that balance is a mutual understanding. The primary purpose of this place is the scru…”

“It is worth some thinking, and I will go away and think about it. However, one of the immovable things—and I am not just talking about dates—might be political parties. We have to be clear that if they make their mind up about when their conference is going to be, that is when it is going to be, whether they have booke…”

“I certainly look forward to seeing that. I have already put on the Order Paper the order that will extend the changes necessary until the end of this Session. I think the others are on, but the ill health one is not covered until the end of the Session, so that is on the Order Paper and we will bring that forward at so…”

“I see. That is an interesting proposition. I am guessing that the one thing you cannot shift is the conferences, because they will be booked years ahead and we know when they will land. Are you saying, “What is the worth of the conference recess?””

“There are a number of things. This is not a criticism of Back-Bench business, but it will sound like it, so let me get that out there. Some of the things that were expected of them in the original reforms are not happening. That is partly due to the nature of how MPs—new MPs in particular—are seeking to use this place.…”

“I am mindful of what the great Bill Cash said to me over Europe: “You are agreeing with me too much. It won’t do your career any good.” But we do agree a bit on this, Chris. I look at it from a different point of view, actually. Without wanting to go into whipping too much, when we did a series of two-line Whips, every…”

“I will start by saying how I see the Modernisation Committee fitting in. I know that there are some problems with this already, but I see it as a hub and spoke mechanism. We are busy refreshing Modernisation: we have changed our side, and I know that there are some changes coming on the Conservative side too, so there …”

“Good question. One thing I did very early on, which flowed from an earlier Procedure Committee report, was ask to look at what a typical working week looked like. An earlier Procedure Committee inquiry, if I am correct, looked at private Members’ Bills, sitting Fridays and all those things. I thought it was a good time…”

“The short answer to your question is no, I have not had conversations with the Speaker. As you know, the Speaker is a great advocate for Parliament, and he encourages and cajoles us to make sure that MPs are making full use of that. I take your point that part of that is what happens here and people seeing it, but also…”

“That is a really good question. We need to think about that, because there need to be lessons learned. Again, there are a lot of aspects to it: one is the new Government having a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do, particularly where it was set out in the manifesto, and there were commitments we had made, usually…”

“I suppose my answer is that this is a work in progress and we should continue to look at cases on their merit. I am not saying that proxy voting would not extend in future. However, as I have already said, I am cautious about that, partly because cases can be accounted for in different ways. They can be dealt with in d…”

“Yes, this is a real issue. I am not saying it is a new issue; I do not know whether it has got worse or better, but it is a real issue, and I take it very seriously indeed. It goes back to what I said at the beginning about making sure that, where we have conventions and rules, they are followed. I continue to make the…”

“Of course, I would be delighted to.”

“Well, despite the fact that I have been here a very long time, I never had a view on restoration and renewal, because I accepted that I did not really need one. In my previous job, I never needed one. I have suddenly discovered in this job that I need one, so I have got one, and it is not exactly what people thought it…”

“The answer to the second question is yes. To the first one, it is a provisional yes; I just need to go and check. Probably it is a double yes.”

“Thank you for inviting me, first of all. As you know, I am quite recently appointed to the job, so I am learning as we go along, but there are three strands of work that I am involved in. The first is a legislative one; it is no secret that we are putting together a second Session, and therefore much of my time is take…”

“I am Alan Campbell, Member of Parliament for Tamworth and the Leader of the House and Lord President of the Council.”

“I do not think there is a simple answer to that. I do not hide the fact that my preference is for annual Sessions, which I would quite like to get back to, but that has probably gone. We still have the short November recess because the Sovereign’s speech was inevitably in November. We knew when the Session started and …”

“The hon. Gentleman will know that the Government’s position is to ensure that we get the best deal possible, working with our European partners. Many of the areas he talks about, quite frankly, have been hit negatively as a result of decisions which were democratically taken. It is important that we do everything we ca…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this matter and playing her part in ensuring that this issue is at the forefront of our minds. I also join her in thanking charities and organisations involved in these matters. As I said, the Government have introduced the HIV action plan, which is one of the most ambitious …”