02/03/2017 Business Questions

into the accuracy and completeness of campaigners' spending returns. It

would not be appropriate at this stage to comment on ongoing cases

but the commission will announce its conclusions. Before we come to the

business question I remind the house that on Monday I indicated that

there would be an opportunity for members to pay their tributes to the

former father of the house, but Parliamentary giant Sir Gerald

Kaufmann. That opportunity for members comes today in the course of

business questions. I will exercise some latitude in terms of the normal

length of questions if colleagues wish to express their personal and

heartfelt tributes. I look forward to hearing what colleagues have to

see about a very remarkable man. Will the leader give the house the

forthcoming business? This is the first business question since the

death of the father of the house and there is this sense of another link

being broken with a former political age. His first political contest was

in 1955 where he stood against Harold Macmillan himself. I think

without too much expectation of a shock victory on that occasion. He

represented excessive Manchester constituencies for many years. --

successor. He also served in Number 10 under Harold Wilson who carried

with him the memories of working alongside and debating against, in

those days the press and in his speech writing capacity, against his

opponents in my own party. Then he went on to serve as a minister and

for many years as a senior member of the Shadow Cabinet during the Labour

Party's years in opposition. I can say from experience that I think his

book entitled how to be minister is one that is still worth reading. I

suspect the member is looking for ways to publicise that second

edition any time soon. I recall from my reading of Gerald's book the

importance that he gave to getting control of your diary and your

private office at the earliest possible date. Also his age warning

to ministers to avoid so far as they could the numerous invitations to

speak at banquets and formal burners which inevitably ended with a host

denouncing the guest of honour in the most strident possible terms. He

was perhaps most in his element as the chairman of the select committee

on one and then later the select committee on sport. Even those who

did not show his politics knew he was a man who was passionately

committed to his own party but passionately committed to the

importance of the arts and of cultural values as something that

mattered to people in all walks of life and in all parts of the UK. And

while those interests and his boozy as is in the field of the arts

ranged widely -- his enthusiasm in the arts ranged widely, I wonder

what we have missed in being able to hear his comments on the Oscars do

back week. I suspect they would have been fairly forceful and waspish

intone. We mourn his passing. We shall miss him in this house and I

am sure everyone would want to send their sympathy to his family and

friends. The business next week, Monday the 6th of March, second

reading of the vehicle and technology aviation bill, Tuesday,

remaining stages of children social work bill followed by a motion

relating to the appointment of the UK Statistics Authority followed by

a motion relating to standing orders, Wednesday, the Chancellor

will deliver his Budget Statement, Thursday, continuation of the budget

debate, Friday the house will not be sitting, provisional business for

the week commencing the 13th of March will be continuation of the

budget debate on Monday and conclusion of the debate on Tuesday.

Colleagues will wish to know that subject to the progress of business

the house will rise for the summer researcher at the laws of play on

boasting the 20th of July and return on Tuesday the 20th of September.

Can I thank the leader for the business? I would like to spend some

of the time talking about and to pay tribute to one of our great

parliamentarians, the father of the house, Sir Gerald Kaufman, who died

at the weekend, and to add to your brilliant tribute on Monday. His

family described it as the end of an era and it is for us in Parliament.

His great love is were ice cream and films and apparently went to see

singing in the rain 20 times in all of the cinemas in Leeds when it

first came out. He also worked on that was the week that was, the

forerunner of Saturday Night Live, and working with a great Rod Custer,

the future director-general. He was fearless in his support for

constituents. Down to his popularity and care for his constituents. On

today world book day he is remembered for his iconic book how

to be a minister. Before I came in to this place I bought that book

before I met him as a present for the member for Leicester East before

he became a minister in the government. Many members have said

how they use that. We have got some lovely anecdotes. The clerk of the

house reminded me that on your re-election Sir Gerald was keen to

get the whole process right and he proceeded with avuncular dignity and

I remember the day and it went off absolutely beautifully and you were

re-elected. On a select committee trip to the Isle of Man along his

birthday to cheer him up he loved marmalade so he was made orange

marmalade ice cream and on committee visit to Rome, some members had not

been to Rome so before he went to the ambassadors' dinner he took them

to the Trevi fountain and to have some gelato. When he was a minister

he always gave a lift to backbenchers when he was in his

ministerial car because he knew one day he would be a backbencher. We

talk about the greasy pole of politics, it is more like the

louche, you get battered as you go down. He dressed beautifully. I was

used to watch him in the tearoom. That is probably a tribute to his

father who was a tailor, a close friend of Harold Wilson, another

great Labour Prime Minister. He was loyal, clever and courageous and he

will be missed in this place. We send our condolences to his family

and friends. I thank the Leader of the House for the date and everyone

is rejoicing that we know when we can rise on the 20th of July but I

wondered if he can give an indication of the State Opening of

Parliament? I know the deputy Leader of the House of Commons get his

outfit ready! Perhaps in keeping with a tribute to Sir Gerald. I know

the leader of this as been busy tabling motions and one will be

tabled on Tuesday the 7th of March relating to standing order 83. Many

lawyers like those amendments were you substitute their fur and but I

might have to explain it. I wondered if he can publish a memorandum and

see why it has been hurried through the day before the budget because it

also relates to things happening in Scotland.

The leader of the house is keen on visiting the other place, and I

don't know if he's known that the Lord will send back an amendment to

the EU Bill, and can the leader of the house gives some indication of

when the bill is coming back to Parliament, the week commencing 13th

of March or the week commencing the 20th? I want to point out something

the leader of the house mentioned last week to remind him that the

government's claim of an additional ?10 billion for the NHS by 2021 has

been stated in a select committee report which is obviously

cross-party, does not accurately reflect, and they say, the impact of

the spending review on health expenditure. If the spending review

period is considered, 2015-16, down to 2020-21, the increases ?4.5

billion, not the 10 billion. I would be grateful if the leader of the

house could quote that figure. I thank him for providing me with the

closing date for the consultation of the new funding formula which will

be on the 22nd of March and I appreciate he's also written to me.

The Prime Minister yesterday said that we have had free schools as

though it was the past but that it is continuing to create more good

places. She said no to grammar schools, is that a no to free

schools because the overall funding of new places through free schools

has put out ?7.9 billion out of a total of new places of 14.9 billion.

But the leader of the house comment on the latest National Audit Office

report which has found that some free schools were opening in areas

where there were already plenty of places, creating spare capacity that

could affect the future financial sustainability of other schools in

the area? Can we have a statement on whether funding for free schools

represents good value for money for the taxpayer and whether it will fix

the problem of school places? Mr Speaker, I'm trying to rush through

in the time because I'm aware that other honourable members want to

make contributions on Sir Gerald's life but given the debate on

international women Pozzo date straight after this -- International

Women's Day, straight after this, there have been cases of women

arrested and placed in a detention centre, Irene Clenell was married to

a British man to 27 years and her job and grandeur were born here and

she was removed without warning added 20 roll student about to

finish her degree is also in a detention centre with no warning.

Can the government clarify the policy on deportations of winning

who are no threat and have been caught unfairly by these are the two

decisions? It is now ten years, Mr Speaker, since the calls to report

on women in prison. Women entering prison are more likely to be in

prison for non-violent offences. Last year, 12 women were killed --

killed themselves in prison in England and Wales and there were 22

deaths of women in prison. The noble Baroness in the other place has

called for more government funding on women's centres. I know sitting

on the bill committee that the government had committed funding for

secure colleges but the government then performed a U-turn on that

decision. If the money is there, committed, could the leader of the

house have discussions with the noble Baroness to look at committed

funding for secure colleges and for women's centres, so that committed

funding can be used to protect those existing centres and create a more

sustainable model? Lastly, Mr Speaker, I would like to welcome the

two new honourable members, the honourable member for Copeland, who

is the 456th woman in this place. And I welcome the honourable member

for Stoke Central, good to have another member on this side from the

West Midlands. I hope they will be inspired by the life and work of Sir

Gerald Kaufmann, a great parliamentarian. May he rest in

peace. Leader of the house. Mr Speaker, can I first apologise to

you in the house as I omitted to inform the house of the business at

Westminster all that is forthcoming. If I can briefly run through that

before replying to the honourable lady. On the 6th of March, we have

got as previously announced, a debate on the new petition relating

to high heels and workplace dress code. The 9th of March, a debate on

the second report of the Scottish affairs committee of the demography

of Scotland and the implications for devolution followed by a debate on

human rights and the political situation in Turkey. On Monday the

13th of March, a debate on eve petition relating to sentencing for

child abuse offences and Thursday the 16th of March, a debate on the

sixth report of the transport committee entitled the future of

rail, improving the rail passenger experience, followed by a debate on

Jobcentre Plus office closures. I happily join the honourable lady in

welcoming our two new colleagues. I can assure her, apropos the state

opening that my honourable friend the deputy leader has more than one

outfit available for such ceremonial occasions. I can't yet give her a

date that she is seeking. On the point about standing orders, yes, I

have already had a similar request from the SNP benches for an

explanatory memorandum and we will be providing that but what it

proposed change to standing orders is about is recognising the fact

that the recent Scotland act has devolved to the Scottish Parliament

the right to set the main rate of income tax and therefore, our own

standing orders, as regards English votes for English laws, need to be

adjusted to take account of the fact that in future, we may well have

situations in which we have a resolution or a piece of legislation

relating to main income tax rates which are specific to England, Wales

and Northern Ireland but not Scotland because those matters will

have been devolved to Holyrood. That is the purpose of that technical

change to standing orders. We will return to the EU Bill as rapidly as

possible after the House of Lords has finished debating it and given

it its third reading. The government certainly remains of the view that

the bill is straightforward. It does no more than confer authority on the

Prime Minister's required -- as required by the courts to initiate

negotiations by triggering Article 50 of the treaty and no, we will

therefore seek to resist changes that would make that negotiating

task more difficult. She asked questions about the NHS. A figure of

?10 billion is completely accurate. It represents the ?8 billion that

the head of NHS England said was needed in order to finance the NHS's

own reform plan, plus a further ?2 billion that represents money that

was allocated to the financial year before the period which NHS England

was intending to carry out its reform plan. Not only that but in

response to the request from the chief executive of NHS England, the

Department of Health has front-loaded that funding so that

the NHS is getting an initial ?4 billion this year in order to get

that reform plan off to the best possible start. She asked me about

free schools. I have to say to her that for me, the key test about free

schools is whether there is a demand for them by parents in the area in

which they are to be located because without that, those schools will not

be able to survive and the test for free schools like the test for any

other school, is whether they are able to provide the best possible

opportunities and life chances and improved achievements for the

children sent to those schools. They only get the one chance of

education. We should be looking for every opportunity to improve the

quality of educational opportunities offered to them. She asked me about

International Women's Day and two particular cases. Without going into

the detail of the cases, the principle here is that people are

only detained, whether it is men or women, if there is a reason to

believe, on the part of the Home Office and the immigration service,

that they might be at risk of disappearing and avoiding removal

from the country and that step is only taken once people have

exhausted their rights to appeal and it is clear that they have no

further legal right to remain here. Her point about prisons I thought

was a perfectly reasonable one but of course, that is one of a number

of important issues to do with prison reform and I think that my

right honourable friend the Secretary of State made very clear

in her recent white paper that she is committed to a programme of

prison reform that improves the chances are that both women and men

who served time in prison will both be treated decently while they are

there but also given the opportunities for the type of

courses and work and educational opportunities which means there will

be a better chance of them living law-abiding lives after release. And

can I associate myself with the remarks made by both front bench

spokesman in relation to the late Father of the house. He gave me one

piece of advice when I first arrived, he said an immigration

cases, young man, which was always good to get my attention, "My strong

advice is to ask anyone that comes to see you, have you got a lawyer

involved, and if they haven't, tell them to get one and if they have,

tell them to use the lawyer". That was quite helpful. On behalf of the

backbench business committee, I noticed Mr Speaker that the leader

of the house has not announced the business for a week on Thursday. We

have now a queue of debates which will feel Thursdays until

prorogation -- which will fill. The week on Thursdays not announced and

if we could have early sight that it would be appreciated. Finally, very

sadly on Monday, a constituent of mine was murdered at a cashpoint in

Wealdstone high Street. It appears to be a targeted murder. I'm pleased

to say the police have arrested an individual who they believe to be

responsible for that murder. But good we have a debate on the

increase in knife crime in London and the impact we can have to stop

people carrying knives and make sure that no one else suffers the kind of

fate that my constituents did? -- constituent. I will happily take on

board my honourable friend's request for the allocation of more slots for

the backbench business committee at an early opportunity. Can I pass on

to the family of his constituent my sympathy and very sincere

condolences? They must be going through the most appalling and

harrowing time. There will be an opportunity on Monday the 6th of

March at Home Office questions for my honourable friend to raise his

concerns about knife crime more generally and I am sure, Mr Speaker,

he may well wish to seek an adjournment debate on the subject.

Can I also thank the leader of the house... Can I add to the tribute to

Sir Gerald Kaufman? I think the leader of the houses absolutely

right that he was from a generation that is quickly passing way and I

think all of this house relied on people like Sir Gerald for advice

and guidance when it came to matters with his experience. So many of us

on these benches, you was a star grow. I remember those long scars

are used where and what they having to be rescued at the entrance to the

tube station because I got caught up in this and the great efforts to

make sure that Sir Gerald was separated from his scarf that day.

My condolences to his family and friends. Can we also welcome today,

and I think the gentleman would appreciate this too, the fact it is

International Book Day, and we should pay tribute to writers, I

have the great pleasure of sharing the all-party writers group and it

is worth recognising the wonderful pieces of work done by all our

writers and making sure they get rewarded for the wonderful works.

What about three cheers for the heroes in ermine? Maybe not so much

over there. The people's aristocrats have spoken and their voice must be

listened to. Every time I raised the issue of the House of Lords with the

leader of the house, he tells me there are absolutely no plans

whatsoever to have that house reformed, excepting therefore the

absolute legitimacy to raise issues such as this. So will he now listen

to the House of Lords on this issue? And will he said today that he has

absolutely no plans whatsoever to use the Parliament act if our

friends, our unelected friends, continue to show backbone on this

particular issue? Can I also thank the leader of the house for

announcing the recess dates but express our profound disappointment

that yet again, this government has singly conspired not to have a long

recess that will cover the school holiday periods of every nation in

the UK. Once again, my colleagues in Scotland will have to try to make

sure they have particular childcare arrangements in place, and struggle

to find an opportunity to have proper school holidays with their

children. Could they make this the last time that we have an issue such

of this -- as this and make sure all nations are covered in the summer

recess? And Mr Speaker, we need a debate about how the Scotland Act

operates. Schedule five of the Scotland Act, as the leader of the

house notes, lists all be reserved powers. If it's not on that list, it

is devolved. I looked at it again this morning and I can't find

agriculture or fisheries anywhere on the list. I'm presuming they are

going to be devolved after Brexit. Can the government confirmed that

today or is it intending to reserve other powers when it comes to the

Scotland Act? Lastly, Mr Speaker, next week of course there is a huge

Commons event. I'm not referring to the budget but the second reading of

the driverless cars built. There are similarities, believe it or not. One

is a journey with no... Heading for disaster, and the other is a

Driverless Cars Built. I am happy to join in celebrating

international book day and ensuring and paying tribute to the authors of

this country and I think it is a welcome trend to find that the

public's appetite for old-fashioned hard copy books seems to be

increasing in a way that defies many of the reductions that have been in

recent years. -- predictions. On the Scotland Act, the Secretary of State

for skull and could not have been more clear yesterday at Scottish

questions -- for Scotland -- that as powers are brought back from the

European Union following our exit there will be additional powers to

be exercised by the Scottish parliament and the Scottish

Government, but what we have to work out and what the UK Government is

doing in consultation with all three of the devolved administrations, in

ways in which that can be done which preserves the integrity of the

single market across the United Kingdom as a whole. It will not help

people like food and drink producers in Scotland who sell in large

quantities to customers in England if we are fined because we have not

got this through properly that there are trading obstacles in the way of

them being able to sell at the least possible cost to those English

customers -- if we find. He has they have regard with the interests of

Scottish producers. I cannot add much more to what I said response to

the shadow leader about the House of Lords debates on the European Union

withdrawal bill. I find that his new-found passionate affection for

the House of Lords makes me suggest that it is not just Nigel Farage who

has secret yearnings for the honours list! It is a great pleasure to

welcome members of Sir Gerald's family. You could not be more

welcome. Thank you for coming. Those of us who have had experience of Sir

Gerald's long life and Parliamentary career will choose those parts that

affect our areas of interest so I hope you will forgive me if I focus

on the crucial role that Sir Gerald played in shifting Labour Party

policy away from a stance in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament

between the years of 1888 and 1991. He started in 1988 by contributing

to our policy review which was called meet the challenge, make the

change, in which labour first aid knowledge did would be sensible to

get some reciprocation in return for giving up Britain's nuclear

deterrent. After a lively exchange of letters in the national press

with the then chairman of the Conservative Party, Chris Patten,

and others, he ended on the 10th of July 1991 with the all portable

statement that a future Labour government would continue to possess

nuclear weapons as long as other countries had them, and this mark

the end of a crucial policy realignment. When the player

government voted with the support of the Conservative opposition to

remove the nuclear deterrent in March 2007 he made a great speech

and he referred back to the fact that of course famously he described

Labour's 1983 antinuclear manifesto as the longest suicide note in

history and he will is seeking to urge his colleagues not to make the

mistakes of the 1980s and he ended his speech by pointing out in March

2007 what it would mean if Labour went back to that stance. He said

defeating the government tonight, Tony Blair's government, could

reduce our party's credibility to contribute to a Labour defeat at the

next election. A cartoon showed an army officer in a bunker saying to

his assembled troops, gentlemen, the time has arrived for us to make a

futile gesture. Sir Gerald said futile gestures can be personally

satisfying but where do they get us? I will tell the house what they get

us. 18 years in opposition. It is one thing, he concluded, to revisit

the scene of the crime, it is quite another to revisit the scene of the

suicide. Those of us who believe the nuclear deterrence have every reason

to be grateful to him for his crucial role in restoring bipartisan

ship between the Labour government of the day and the opposition of the

day that secured the renewal of the nuclear deterrent and I think the

country has reason to be grateful to him as well. As I ought to pay lip

service to the fact this is business questions as well, I will segue from

that issue of one form of unilateralism to another and ask the

leader of the weather we could have a statement from a Brexit minister

as to what assessment the government has made from the motives of those

people with whom we will be negotiating in the future in other

countries not to respond to the initiatives that we have been taking

and the indications that we have been giving that members of their

societies who have chosen to live in Britain will be able to continue

doing so so long as our citizens are able to continue living in their

countries. Unilateralism as the principal is sometimes high-minded

and sometimes a futile gesture. In the spirit of what Sir Gerald did to

the Labour Party we ought to think about whether we really want to

leave so many of our citizens exposed to poor treatment from other

countries when we are offering generous treatment of their citizens

who live here. The EU 27 governments have been clear they will on the

engage in negotiations once article 50 has been triggered. I am

optimistic that a reciprocal agreement on the status of each

other's citizens can indeed be achieved. That is in the rational

interests of the UK and all are 27 EU partners. I hope that can be an

early achievement of the negotiations once they start. And I

thank the Leader of the House of Lords giving us the dates of the

summer recess? It is rather a shame he was that able to do it earlier

but we appreciate we know where we stand now. Before turning to the

question of the late Sir Gerald. I think I am right in saying that it

is rarely, perhaps many decades, since we have been unfortunate

enough to lose a father of the house during his incumbency and I

personally, and I am sure this is shared, regret that the new Father

of the houses not able to be us today. One of Gerald's most gleeful

tales was how he had the forethought when he was first elected to the

house to make sure he took his oath before the member for Rushcliffe in

the member that both of them might be here for some considerable time

and they were among those who might be contenders for the post of Father

of the house. He took great glee in telling that story. I would like to

say I think he probably would not have begrudged the member for

Rushcliffe his opportunity but I am not absolutely certain! I would not

wish to do Gerald and injustice in any way. Certainly he was

desperately anxious to become father of the house and fully deserved to

hold that office. As everyone has said, and I am pleased his family

could be year, he was witty, brave, he could be extremely acerbic, but

he was a very skilled parliamentarian. I see some of the

obituaries have referred to his skill in committee and somebody who

was a whip when Gerald was a minister I can set they testify to

that. It might be worth someone to look back to that time. Gerald as a

Minister of State to try to get a bill through the house, bearing in

mind this was a stage when we did not really have a majority, even

notional majority we had, most of whom were too sick to be here, on

committee things were extremely tight. Gerald was an absolutely

brilliant committee minister. He flattered the opposition shamefully.

Quite disgustingly. He covered them with compliments and praise while

not being able to quite see his weekly to accepting brilliant

amendments. He was also very good value as a confident and adviser. I

happened to be in committee with General don a day when we had a

government vacancy which we had have -- had had for sometime and I had to

explain to a civil servant I cannot possibly, I am the whip on a

committee, do not be ridiculous, of course I cannot come now, I will

come at lunchtime. That gave me the opportunity to consult Gerald. I had

only been a member for just over a year. I was unenthusiastic about the

prospect that appear to lie before me. I said, do you think I can ask

for time to think about it? He liked me guessed what the summons might

mean and the first thing he said to me was, congratulations, that is

fantastic. I said, can I ask for time to think about it? He said,

when the Prime Minister sends for you you either say yes, Prime

Minister or no, Prime Minister, you do not ask for time to think about

it. Looking back I am stunned by how naive I was to ask the question. It

was certainly very helpful advice. He was an extremely kind man. I have

a close personal friend who worked with him in Number 10 and always

spoke about what hysterical and great company he was but also what a

kind person he was. Despite the advice he gave to the member who

spoke earlier he was a ferocious advocate on behalf of his

constituents and I think the Leader of the House should probably think

himself lucky he did not have the chance to hear Gerald's comments on

the cases raised by the shadow leader of people detained without

notice. Gerald would have had a lot to say about that and would not have

been very nice to hear. I am looking forward to more of her

reminiscences. What she has done is reminded us both of the length of

Sir Gerald's career and the depth of his experience at the wisdom that

comes with that experiences of operating in this house and in

government over such a long period of time. Like you, on separate

occasions I saw Gerald at his home only a few weeks ago. I know you

went and a good friend of mine, Claire Ward, the former member for

Watford. Even just a few weeks ago he was saying how keen he was to get

back to this place and we are all very sad that he did not. For those

who did not know him, who saw him as being ferociously vitriolic and he

was in this chamber, but outside he was a very different man. He had the

wasp a sense of humour and I had the privilege of joining him in 1993 on

the national heritage select committee and it was so good and the

trips were so marvellous and he was such a brilliant chairman I stayed

with him not only with that committee but also two parliaments,

apart from a brief excursion to the Home Affairs Select Committee, with

the culture media and sport committee. He hated pomposity and I

thought that was one of his most marvellous features. He loved

outrageous clothes. I do is to go with him to the theatre from time

and also to the cinema. His last recommendation to me was a brilliant

movie Hail Caesar which I saw and loved. If the weather was cold he

would wear a red tea cosy on his head and when I talked about this he

said he wasn't half as embarrassed about what I'm wearing.

He also loved ice cream. I remember toddling off with him once when I

was on the culture, media and sport select committee and visiting Los

Angeles and the meeting was getting very boring, in fact, we were being

addressed by the chap from the Foreign Office and it had nothing to

do with our enquiry but I remember Gerald got up and said, "Thank you

very much for your speech", and the Foreign Office official rather

foolishly said, "But I haven't finished", and Gerald turned round

and said, in a way that only good, "Oh, yes, you have". Then we toddled

off to get the ice cream because ice cream, musicals which he could sing

along to, he knew all the words and Judy Garland were his great loves.

He was a brilliant chairman of the heritage and culture, media and

sport select committee, great fun, he was not party political. In fact,

I found myself and now I'm going to lose the support of all my friends

on this side of the house because I found myself always defending the

BBC whereas he wanted to abolish it! It was a strange juxtaposition of

roles. He told me not long ago, actually, that the present party

chairman, the Conservative Party chairman, when he was a junior whip,

back in 1993, asked Sir Gerald Kaufmann did take me under his wing

because I was rather wild. Maybe he could make me more like a sort of

conventional parliamentarian. So you can see that worked! In short, he

was a wonderful man. He brightened all our lives. He was a great

friend. He was nothing like the person that I think the public saw

him as. He was self-deprecating. He was kindly. And a great

parliamentarian. And I think we will all miss him. I'm grateful to my

honourable friend. Dame Rosie Winterton. Mr Speaker, thank you for

giving the house the opportunity to pay tribute to Sir Gerald, who, as

others have said, inspired so many parliamentarians and who certainly

gave me invaluable advice and support my time -- during my time as

a minister and also as Chief Whip. And as others have said, Gerald was

a stalwart member of the Labour Party and with a political career

stretching back over 50 years, he knew that principle without power

was not enough, as my right honourable friend said. He

campaigned tirelessly for a Labour government. Again, as others have

said, his book, How To Be A Minister, remains a classic guide to

new ministers wanting to make their mark. And he had an ability to sum

up his views with a witty turn of phrase that could be as colourful

and memorable as his suits. It was an honour for all of us went Gerald

became father of the house and we were very proud to see him take up

that role. He took that role extremely seriously. Gerald had

always been fiercely protective of the rights of parliamentarians. And

I remember him bellowing at the then leader of the house, William Hague,

when as I am sure many here we will recall, he felt Mr Hague had decided

to closely with the executive against the wishes of members of

this house. Gerald continued that upholding of members' right when he

became Father of the house. When I last saw Gerald, he was clearly very

ill. But he was still keen to talk politics and offer his advice. That

advice was as insightful as ever. And I was greatly comforted to see

him surrounded by his loving family who clearly adored Uncle Gerald.

Gerald made a distinctive mark on our national life and in particular,

as so many have said, in this place. He will be greatly missed and I can

think of nothing more fitting, given his ten years of chairing the

culture select committee, than for us to have a debate, Mr Speaker, on

the importance of the arts to our economy and society, and the

devastating effect of government cuts, particularly to funding of

arts in the regions will stop and I hope the leader of the house will

let us have that debate. -- in the regions. The honourable lady paid a

moving tribute to Sir Gerald. I will, I'll take on board her request

for a debate about the arts at some future date. It may also be

something the backbench business committee might wish to consider. I

join with others in paying tribute to the late Sir Gerald Kaufman. Now

Mr Speaker, I can't pretend that I got the impression that Sir Gerald

did not entirely approve of myself, which is quite understandable. I was

never sure whether that was because I was once the member of Parliament

for Basildon or was it because of my views on the state of Israel. But

what I can say without hesitation was that he was a commanding figure

in this house, a great orator, and I for one would not have wished to

have got on the wrong side of him. As a result of his death, and I'm

really glad that he did become father of the house, I am number 14

on the list and as I look round the house, there are a number of

colleagues in front of me in the queue and I see that they are in

extremely good health, so I'm not holding my breath about my becoming

Father of the house. Now, turning to my question to the leader of the

house, will my right honourable friend find time for a debate on

fake news? An increasing number of constituents are complaining to me

about what were once reliable websites giving full synth and --

falls information and the number of scams. I have to tell my right

honourable friend the leader of the house that only this week it was

announced that Warren Baiji and Faye Dunaway opened an envelope

suggesting that I had won an Oscar for being the leading actor was the

-- Warren Beatty. I'm delighted to tell my right honourable friend that

they opened the wrong envelope and it has now been given the award to

the rightful recipient, Mr Tony Blair, for his performance at the

press conference following the publication of the Chilcot Report.

Mr Speaker, I understand that there is genuine concern about the wide

availability of misleading, sometimes very deliberately

misleading information on various websites. Now, inevitably, the

international character of the Internet means that it is not

straightforward to try to address this problem but my honourable

friend, the Minister for digital and culture, is convening a roundtable

with a broad range of people in the news industry on the 14th of March

where this will be one of the subject under discussion. Mr

Speaker, when I came to the house in 1979, I admit that Gerald Kaufman

was at part of a wonderful gang of John Smith, Roy Hattersley, and a

group of people who at that time were getting used to being in

opposition and of course, we had to get used to opposition because we

were in opposition for a very long time. But during that time, I used

to see Gerald Kaufman at all of us will say he was a great

parliamentarian but Mr Speaker, when I came into the house, when the wind

ups were taken much more seriously, when the house took Debaty more

seriously in terms of attendance, the one thing you could guarantee,

if Gerald was at the dispatch box, the house would be packed. He was

the funniest, he was the most incisive, he was the most brilliant

debater I ever saw in this house. And I have seen some very good

debaters in this house. But Gerald in his prime was peerless. I think

people should remember, you know, when I look here, where he sat for

so many years, and remember, when he was on the liaison committee with

me, as a chairman of the select committee, but I remember him

sitting just there, and as he got older, and of course, the wonderful

thing about Gerald, in his later years, he didn't lose any of his

brainpower, he'd lost none of his brainpower. His body let him down.

His brain certainly didn't. Some of you will remember last it was the

Centenary of the birth of Harold Wilson and Gerald gave me a

tremendous amount of information, about when he worked for Harold

Wilson in number ten. If I could just give the house one little

instance, he was in number ten one night and the phone rang and it was

president Lyndon Johnson of the USA asking to speak to Harold Wilson.

Gerald says, "I took the phone call and post it to Harold, and it was

Lyndon B. Johnson, begging Harold to send at least a token force to

Vietnam, a British force to Vietnam" . He described how Harold listened

patiently, he was a good friend of LBJ but at the end, he said, "I'm

sorry, old bean, not even a Scottish pipers banned". If you talk to

Gerald about where the party had been, and I have two reveal some

uncomfortable things that some people on our benches will remember,

when the Labour Party was in trouble, they always mention this,

Gerald was the brains behind Solidarity, the group within the

Labour Party that wanted to be very careful about a shift to the hard

left. That work with Roy Hattersley, John Smith and a bunch of others was

very important indeed in terms of how that Labour Party survived and

thrived and won the election in 1997. On these benches, we must pay

tribute to the man that kept the ship moving towards a decent target.

But can I also say that when I first met Gerald, he had a great friend,

Eric Varney. Many people don't remember Eric because he died very

young. But he and Gerald were very close friends. I think it right to

mention Eric's named today in terms of that period of Gerald's life when

he was a very happy man. Can I also just say one last thing? You never,

ever wanted to cross Gerald on things like films. I remember being

very foolish, going into the members tea room, being very enthusiastic

about seeing a new film and I think one particular... I had seen

Superman for the first time. Gerald had been to see it and he gave this

caustic review of everything that was wrong with American cinema at

that time, everything about the plot, the acting, and he said," but

you liked it, Barry, so it couldn't be all bad". Gerald has left a

legacy. He did not have any children but he has left a legacy both in

this house, in the country, and in his constituency. I used to tease

him because you remember, Harold Wilson was born in Huddersfield and

had to go to Lancashire to get a seat. Of course, Gerald was a real

Leeds man and had to go to Manchester to get a seat and be in

this house. The one interesting thing, some people talked about

Gerald's sense of style, and it did push the boundaries in some ways,

even in terms of the wonderful suits, and all his life, he kept

faithful to the same Leeds tailor and would specify which Huddersfield

mill the cost would be spun in and woven in. -- the cloth would be. A

man of great talent and common-sense, of brilliance in terms

of laboratory. We owe him so much. Not only as a party, not only as a

house, but as a country. I thank the honourable gentleman for his

heartfelt tribute, particularly, if I may say so, for his reminder of

the key political role that Gerald played at that particular time in

the Labour Party's history. I will take careful note of that request!

Mr Speaker, I'm afraid I'm unable to add any anecdotes about the life of

the late Father of the house but I do of course associate myself with

the expressions of sympathy to his family and friends. Mr Speaker,

earlier this week the all-party group on retail crime met and

reviewed a recent survey of the increasing levels of violence, both

verbal and physical, against people who work in the retail trade. Could

the leader of the house find time for an early debate on this serious

issue? I cannot offer an early debate in

government time, there may be other opportunities, but I am sure we

share his sense of revulsion at the threats that shop workers and others

that the retail trade face. This is something that should not be

tolerated in any decent society and I am sure everyone would agree on

the importance of not just the police but of citizens who might

have information about such attacks would like to make sure they are

deterred and perpetrators appropriately punished. Can I thank

you and the leader for the opportunity to pay tribute to Sir

Gerald? Since my selection of parliamentary candidate I was lucky

to attend many community meetings and events with my next-door

neighbour. Often these would reflect the causes he championed such as the

rights of the Palestinians or cashmere and I remember doing a

Bollywood dance routine with them! On an open-air stage in a market

years ago. His dance moves should up my own, even though at the time he

was well into his 80s. What was remarkable was the admiration and

the extraordinarily high esteem in which he was held by his

constituents. I genuinely do not think I have come across another MP

who was so widely admired by the constituents. That is largely

because he was such a fierce champion of their interests in

parliament and in Manchester. Also because he was so assiduous in his

dealings with them and his communication with them and

residents often used to tell me how they would write to Sir Gerald and

receive a handwritten reply by return. Sometimes these would

reflect his sharp tongue and a particular favourite of mine was I

agree with your concerns on this issue, unfortunately there is no

point me writing to the Chancellor because he is useless and he will

not listen to me! Perhaps the only thing sharper than Sir Gerald's

tongue and mind was his dress sense. In Parliament we will miss his

remarkable suits and shirts almost as much as the people of Manchester

will miss his quiet remarkable service. He made his point well. We

will be searching YouTube to see if a video of this dance routines are

five! Can I add my commiserations to the family of Sir Gerald? He was not

only a legend in this place but had a formidable career before he

arrived your working for the BBC on satirical programmes like that was

the week that was. I was too young but I have seen some of the stuff

going on there. In 2020 Plymouth under UK will be celebrating the

400th anniversary of the Mayflower ship leaving Plymouth to find the

American colonies. Can we have a debate on the possibility of a

Mayflower national walking trail through the places that the pilgrims

travelled through? I think that sounds an excellent idea. I hope

that might perhaps be an adjournment debate opportunity to pursue this

further but it is something to which the government would be sympathetic

but would need a great deal of local work to try to make this happen. I

would like to add to the tributes to Sir Gerald Kaufman who was a good

friend of mine for many years. Was elected in 1970 at the same election

as the member for Bolsover and he was one of that generation of MPs

who did not quite get to the cabinet because he was really in the wrong

place at the wrong time. He was a Minister of State in 1979 when

Labour left authors, sadly for 18 years. For many of us, including

general. If things had been different I think Gerald would have

read the cabinet and would have been unimpressive minister. E was quick,

witty, and he had the rare ability to think on his feet, not something

many people are able to do. I used to see it on a regular basis

including in PLP meetings and other were moments in the middle, some of

you may know that PLP meetings have had their moments of interest... I

do not think I am breaking any confidence! They are virtually open

to the public at the moment. Gerald certainly lightened the tone. Were

times when I was chairman of PLP meetings when I would find myself

moment finally discombobulated by his sartorial magnificence. Just as

you are seeing something sensitive and female black walks in and he

always had something interesting to say -- and Sir Gerald Kaufman walks

in and he was had something interesting to say. He was never put

on hold. He often had views that seemed at odds compared to his

public reputation. In some ways he was rebellious but he was also a

natural. Every Labour leader recognise that, that he had very

loyal qualities. Privately when Tony Blair was Prime Minister if he had

any criticism they were not made public but he would say to me in

conversation, he would start any criticism with, as you know, I bow

to no man in my admonition of the Prime Minister, and then he would go

on to say something acerbic about something the government had just

done. He will be very deeply missed by many of us on all sides of the

house. Not an entirely unrelated issue because Gerald represented a

city that has a strong footballing tradition, one of the strongest, the

local footballing team in my constituency Leyton Orient has been

signed with the winding up order yesterday. This was not something I

was going to raise with you. The order was served because the order

has caused mayhem in two and half years and has taken the club down

from some of its highest point to some of its lowest has not paid the

HMRC for a number of years. No body knows exactly how much he owes HMRC

but it is rumoured to be about a quarter of ?1 million. We are seeing

this pattern and footballer and a fairly regular basis. We have had

debates and statements on the governance of football clubs and the

administration but I think we could do with another statement or a

debate on the governance of football clubs because we are seeing people

of increasingly dubious character buying up football teams in Britain

for whatever mendacious reasons they have, and I think a lot is going to

come out about the order of Leyton Orient. I am sure the house welcome

his tribute to Sir Gerald Kaufman. On Leyton Orient and football, we

had a debate about the governance of football about two weeks ago so I do

not think I can offer a further debate on government time in the

short-term but I will undertake to report his concerns about Leyton

Orient and the general issue that he raises to the Secretary of State.

May I associate myself with the tributes paid by members to the late

Father of that house? It speaks volumes of the depth of knowledge

and wisdom in this house that the late Sir Gerald was a member of this

house and the government before I and many other members were born and

although I only overlapped in service of this house for regular

and a half with Sir Gerald I think I am on safe ground in seeing his

wisdom, judgment, which and experience will all be sorely missed

from the deliberations of this house in the future. Today the Joe

Humphreys memorial trust, a trust set up in memory of John Humphrys, a

14-year-old boy from my constituency who drop dead suddenly while jogging

in 2012, are holding an important conference in the city of Leicester

to bring together professionals from the world of sport at the medical

profession to discuss sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, also

known as sudden adult death syndrome, what can be done to raise

awareness of it and prevent it. Will he join in paying tribute to Joe

Humphrys' family and those who work with the trust and can we have a

debate on sudden arrhythmic death syndrome? I would join him in paying

tribute to Joe's family and to the others working with them and so very

much welcome the initiative that he has described to encourage a

fruitful exchange of ideas about how we can do more to detect and treat

these very distressing conditions because the death in particular of

young person causes such devastation to their families and friends. We do

have some of the fastest improvements in hospital death rates

for stroke and heart attacks anywhere in Europe. I think there is

some evidence that is partly due to the creation of specialist stroke

and cardiac unit but there's agreed deal more to be done. I know the

Department of Health will want to report the work being happening in

Leicestershire. And I associate myself with everything that has been

said about Sir Gerald Kaufman? In his role as father of the house,

kindness and wisdom have been outstanding characteristics. I

cannot help feeling listening to the warmth of these tributes that a

procedure in the Scottish parliament where the death of a sitting member

is followed by a motion of condolence led by the party leaders,

which provides a real opportunity to hear some of the warmth and the

humour and insight we have heard from so many members today, and

certainly someone of Gerald's stature, would have been worthy of

such a motion. The house could have done with Sir Gerald Kaufman here

today because he had been a member for most that years when the late

Donald Dewar brought forward the Scotland Bill and at the heart of

that and Donald Dewar's genius was to put forward the principle that

anything that was not specifically reserved to this parliament was

automatically devolved to Scotland, so when the Secretary of State for

Scotland was caught in the headlights yesterday and the Prime

Minister was seemingly unaware of that foundation principal of the

Parliament, it was not just in sensitivity towards goal and, not

just a betrayal of commitments made in the referendum campaign, it was

striking at the heart of the devolution statute itself. Perhaps

rather than resting on civil service gobbledygook the Leader of the House

would show some awareness of the seriousness of not agreeing that

everything that is not specifically devolved automatically goes to the

Scottish Parliament including fishing, farming and a range of

other issues? What happened with the Scotland Act... He is correct in

having described that acts, but what happened as it was taken through

Parliament in the context of the United Kingdom's continuing

membership of the European Union and with a clear knowledge on all sides

that other certain powers that were exercised at that level. We are now

in a very different situation and whichever side any of us took in the

referendum there is an understanding that the decision that the UK

electorate made represents a profound change of course for the

United Kingdom. This is exactly why the UK Government is talking to the

Scottish Government at ministerial and official level about how exactly

to deal with the repatriation of powers from Brussels to ensure that

they are correctly allocated, and he does oversimplify the position

because to take the fisheries question that he cited, the powers

exercised by the European Union deal with matters both which might well

involve the devolved administrations exercising jurisdiction but also

involve the settling of matters between the European Union and third

countries that involve United Nations conventions which, under the

terms of the Scotland Act, would be reserved matters. It is that

conundrum that has to be addressed. May I also associate myself with the

very many comments made about the late Sir Gerald Kaufman? I cannot

claim to have known him very well but that does not diminish the

respect that myself and fellow Welsh members on the side of the house

have for him. I would like to send our sympathies to his family. Can I

inform him that there are several developments at Park homes in my

constituency, developments where the owners pay council tax, utility

bills and maintenance charges, but when it comes to selling their

properties in addition to the estate agents fees they have to pay 10% of

their sale price to the site owners. Can we have a debate on the iron

furnace of this additional charge? My honourable friend as always is

speaking up for his constituents. The situation we have is the site

owners entitlement to receive a commission an implied term in all

agreements and my understanding is that commission is an important

income strand for Park Home businesses which means they can

ensure that the sites are properly managed and maintained. This issue

was looked at in 2012 by the communities and local government

select committee which recommended that the 10% or less commission rule

should remain in place. The government then agreed the current

position should continue but we have a further review of the mobile homes

act 2013 this spring and that will provide a further opportunity to

listen to representations and consider how the present system is

operating. Gerald Kaufmann was justly proud that he was the longest

serving member of Parliament for Manchester ever and as he would tell

you from time to time, both continuously and by broken service,

he was particularly proud of that. When I became leader of the council

in 1984, I went to see Gerald because he had not always been

appreciative of the efforts of Manchester City Council offices to

deliver services to his constituents. I came to an agreement

with him that if, after he had contacted a department twice, that

he came to me, if I couldn't sort it out, he could be as critical as he

liked and we kept that. My phone went one morning, and this will not

be one of the most famous acidic comments that Gerald made, but it

reminds me of him and I think it's a bit he said, "Graham, do they employ

human beings in the housing department?" He was very

dissatisfied with the treatment of a family who were in severe housing

difficulty. But what was more remarkable about that comment and

that particular lunchtime phone call was that it was the day when he was

the centre of worldwide media attention because as the honourable

member referred to, he was the Shadow Foreign Secretary in charge

of changing Labour's policy of unilateralism to multilateralism and

he took time off in the middle of that media hubbub to take up the

cudgels on behalf of one of his -- of a family of his constituents. He

was a ferocious Tribune on behalf of, first of the people of our

quick, his first Manchester constituency, and secondly on behalf

of the people of Alton. He loved this place. -- golden. He intended

to stay here as long as he did. When he started drawing his pension,

there was obviously a lot of interest from the Young Turks in his

constituency who rather fancied that they would do a better job of

representing the people of Manchester Gorton and when they

sidled up to him and asked him, "Gerald, are you standing in the

next general election?" He would say, "Yes, and the one after". And

that was always his reply, even recently. His love of musicals has

been referred to. He was a personal friend of Stephen Sondheim, the

American lyricist and songwriter. He brought Stephen Sondheim to

Manchester with some of his plays which we put on, on stage, in

Manchester. Mr Speaker, I guess you have been never serenaded by Gerald

Kaufmann but I have had my office opposite is for the last 18 years.

If he'd been to a particularly good musical in the West End the night

before, you could hear him singing the songs from the musical, which is

not the image that most of the public would have had. -- would have

had of him. A number of colleagues have mentioned his book, Had To Be A

Minister Noble. I Went With Gerald And The Other Manchester Mps To See

A Labour Minister Of Health With. I went to see a Labour Minister of

health because there were health issues in Manchester. The Labour

Minister mentioned he had read the book and we went out not

particularly satisfied with the meeting and Gerald, in a very loud

whisper as we were leaving, said, "He might have read it but he didn't

understand it". The minister is no longer a member of this house.

Gerald loved his constituents. He cared passionately about his party

and we will miss him. The honourable gentleman reminds us that although

an adopted son of the city, Gerald Kaufman always felt his roots were

very much embedded in Manchester and he always strove to represent the

interests both of his own constituents but also the city more

widely. Thank you, Mr Speaker, can I also associate myself with a lovely

tribute we heard in relation to the late Father of the house. As a new

member, I did not have the opportunity to get to know him well

but what I have heard today as provided a tremendous insight from

which I can only conclude he will be a very sad and great loss to his

friends and family. Can we have a debate, Mr Speaker, on what it

actually means to be, "Committed to the best possible outcome for the

United Kingdom following its departure from the European Union"?

Would the leader of the house not agree with me that we all want the

best possible deal following the referendum result in the

circumstances but we may disagree on what that deal might look like? To

this end, would he not agree with me that as for organisations bidding

for government contracts, subscribe themselves to the government's

political view on Brexit is not only wrong but would take us down a

dangerous path for the future. There will certainly be, I can assure the

honourable lady, many opportunities to have the sort of debate that she

seeks. When all views, including her own, can be expressed in full. The

allocation of government contracts takes place under a fair and

transparent process that is laid down by the Cabinet Office. Thank

you, Mr Speaker. We all feel a real sense of loss at the passing of Sir

Gerald Kaufmann. -- Gerald Kaufman. The reason why we remember his many

qualities, as members have done this morning, like his personality, his

humour and his powerful intellect, his dress, his individuality and

charm, but I think what we can say is in missing him, Mr Speaker, the

greatest tribute we can give is to ensure that his memory lives on and

the example he set us all, that we never forget that. I mean, looking

at his past, saying to the leader of the house, I saw he was shadow... A

former Shadow Home Secretary in the 80s I'm sure he would continue to

wish me to hold the government to account as he did in the 80s and can

I ask the leader of the house, can we have an urgent debate on

policing, given that astonishingly, the government has today failed to

come forward with a statement on policing and the crisis in policing

that we face? Forces including my own rationing their responses to the

public in the face of a 15% reduction in the number of police

officers between 2010 and 2020. It is not good enough. We need a

debate. It is a crisis. What does the leader say to that? I... First

of all, I salute the honourable gentleman's tribute to Gerald

Kaufman and I would say in response to his challenge about the police

that yes, the police is indeed like all parts of the public sector have

had to face up to the need for very difficult decisions about budget

priorities, decisions made necessary by the parlous state of the public

finances which the government inherited in 2010 but I think that

chief constables and police and crime commissioners have responded

extraordinarily well, and the Testament of that is the fact that

despite the reductions in police funding that he has described, there

has been a significant fall in crime in this country and I would want to

pay tribute to the work that the police are doing and the leadership

they have been showing, inserting those priorities and getting on with

the job successfully. -- in setting those priorities. I apologise to the

house and yourself Mr Speaker for not being here earlier. It was just

not possible to be here, as I indicated yesterday. I would also

like to say a few words about Gerald Kaufman. I pay tribute to him, as

are the honourable members have done on both sides, because if there ever

was a one-off, it was Gerald, in the way in which he approached his job,

the way in which he held his various enthusiasms, not least films,

Singing In The Rain, apparently, he saw 70 times. And then he was not

satisfied entirely with that, he made an appointment and wrote about

it, and when he saw Gene Kelly in Hollywood, it must have been one of

the high moments of his life. I first came across him, I knew of

Gerald before I came here in the mid-60s, because he was quite a

well-known journalist by then and wrote a regular column in the new

statesman. But when I came here, he was what we now call the spin doctor

for Harold Wilson. If you look at all the sort of diaries about the

kitchen cabinet, the rows that went on, the difficulties about Harold

Wilson's private secretary and the rest of it, all very interesting,

gossipy stuff, perhaps politically interesting as well. But you won't

find a single mention of any of that from Gerald. He never wrote about it

when he could easily have done so as a professional journalist, and he

might have kept a diary for we know. And the reason he did not write

about it was that he was so dedicated to Harold Wilson as his

employer, that he didn't gossip about what went on in private

proceedings and as I said, none of those exploits of the kitchen

cabinet which became so well known in political circles at ten Downing

St was written about by Gerald, and for that reason. I once went out, I

was in the members lobby once during various days when he was the spin

doctor, and he said, "Come here a moment", so I came. "Look At those

two", two of my labour colleagues. They were chatting together, simply

innocent as far as I was concerned. He said, "Do you know? Those two

were hardly on speaking terms until recently and look at them now". What

he was implying was that they were plotting against Harold. If Harold

had paranoia, then his spin doctor contributed to that. But he did so

out of a dedication to what he saw as the Labour government being led

by Gerald Kaufman. When he spoke in the house, when Harold Wilson died,

he said at that time, he was telling us about he was a junior minister in

environment, dealing with transport matters. He said," I received a memo

from the Prime Minister saying, would you make provision for former

Prime Minister is to have a car and a chauffeur?" He said, "At that

moment, I knew Harold Wilson was going to retire". He was probably

right. Two other points I would make, if I may before I sit down. He

was a dedicated, as has been mentioned by others including

Manchester colleagues of his, dedicated in casework. You know, as

you mentioned it yesterday, Mr Speaker, how he would rise in the

chamber and ask why he hasn't had a reply about so and so. It wasn't

just occasionally. He did it quite frequently and it showed his

dedication, despite the fact that he did 46 years, he was as dedicated as

a constituency member of Parliament from all accounts as he was on his

first week, or his first year here. That says a great deal and it also

says a great deal about members of parliament in general because there

are very few now who don't take great care of their constituents in

replying as promptly as possible and assiduously. The last point I want

to make is perhaps controversial. Gerald was born in 1930. If ever

there was a person of Jewish origin who understood the horrors of what

was to take place by the time he was 15, it was Gerald. He knew from the

very beginning, when the stories came out, and the statements made in

the House of Commons, how sharp-macros are being sorted

now hundreds of thousands and then in their millions for no other

reason than that they shared the same origin as Gerald and did it

myself. -- how Jews. He was an ardent supporter of Israel, before

he was a member of Parliament, during the 1967 war, I remember his

eagerness that Israel should survive, his great fear, shared by

many others who became critics, that if it was otherwise, the Jewish

population could be forced into the sea as the threats were made at the

time. But later, he became a harsh critic of Israel. And he became a

harsh critic of Israel, not because he ceased to be concerned about

Jews, that is a false accusation made against him and which was made

from time to time, but he believed that Israelis were showing a total

lack of consideration the Palestinians, that they were

treating Palestinians in many instances with contempt and he felt

as strong -- a strong urge to speak out as he did. I know he antagonised

a number of people in the Jewish community by doing that. But Gerald

was the sort of person who not the sort of person who would feel

intimidated because people didn't like what he said. I think he was

right and one would expect me to say that because I, too, have very

strong feelings about the way in which Palestinians have been

treated, the contempt for their human rights and the fact that as

far as I can see, the Israeli authorities, the leading people show

no desire to bring about a sovereign, independent Palestine

along with Israel. In conclusion, Gerald was not the

easiest person to get on with. I had my own occasional rows and we made

up and spoke about films. Was difficult in many instances but how

many people with such courage and determination and single-mindedness

are not really difficult when you assess their lives? He did good, he

wanted to do good, he was dedicated to the Labour Party and the labour

movement and to this country. We shall miss him a great deal. I thank

the gentleman for what he has said. I wish to add my tributes on behalf

of myself and my party to the late and much missed father of the house

Sir Gerald Kaufman. He was an extraordinary servant for Manchester

that he represented for such a remarkable number of years, but he

was actually originally a Leeds boy, born in Leeds. And someone who went

to schools in Leeds and developed a lot of his political thinking in

Leeds and Leeds is proud of him and paid tribute to him. He was also the

son of Jewish refugees who escaped in Poland and in these troubled

times for the son of foreign refugees fleeing persecution to end

up as leader of this house is not only an enormous tributes to him and

his family, it is also something that surely must send out a very

clear message today in these troubled times, and that is

something we should all reflect on and be proud of his achievement. He

was the huge parliamentarian, a real defender of this Parliament, and all

of us who regard ourselves as parliamentarians ahead of roles

government and in party have certainly lost one of her own. When

it comes to my party it has to be said that he was not always the

greatest fan of Liberal Democrats! With good reason. That is an

understatement. Largely because of Liberal Democrats snapping at his

heels for so many years but he was clearly not going to be shifted as

long as that continued. He has clearly a very large personal vote

mag as well as what was a safe Labour seat. He was someone who

spoke without fear or favour and he will be long remembered for that,

and I think some of that goes back to that leads origin and that famous

Yorkshire bluntness. He had the courage to disagree with his own

party leaders and colleagues, he had the courage to criticise

journalists. As a former journalist. He had the courage, whatever people

may feel about his views, as a proud Jewish man to speak out on the

situation in Israel and Palestine and the legacy from that is we must

get to a stage where we do not see that particular issue as having to

take one side or another but fight as Sir Gerald did for justice, for

peace and resolution. I am very pleased to say he supported

consistently the campaign for furnace when it comes to the

situation with pub companies and their landlords and I am very proud

to say he was one of those people as a parliamentarian who stood up for

Parliament in the vault in November 20 14th when Parliament and MPs

defeated the government on a three line whip when ministers had not

listened. I am very light, Prodi was involved in that. -- very proud he

was involved. Can we have on the situation regarding the way that we

tax hubs? 37% of pubs in this country are facing a rate rise. Many

facing rises of ?10,000 or more which will put many pubs in this

country out of business or for pubs in Manchester, Leeds and London and

around the country can we have a debate on government time about how

we can recognise the social value of pubs in the tax system which does

not happen at the moment. I cannot offer a specific government debate

on that subject but I can assure him that the debate on the forthcoming

Budget Statement will I am confident provide him with the opportunity to

raise all those questions. The last Father of the house to die in office

was in 19 29th of this is a very unusual moment for us and I support

the call that maybe we should have a formal means of making sure we pay

tribute to any member and it is not a decision left up to only the

Speaker and the chairman. Many LGBT people are grateful to general

because he campaigned for a very long time when it was very

unfashionable and long before equal marriage was introduced. He was had

an absolutely impeccable record on that. He loved musicals to a point

of distraction. Everybody has referred to singing in the rain and

that being his favourite musical. When the DC MS select committee I

was on when he was chairman were on tour and I use the term onto

advisedly, because every year he insisted the committee had to go to

the west Coast of America, so he had to find something we had to

investigate on the west Coast of America, he would welcome all of us

to breakfast by singing good morning, good morning. I remember

him being very angry once when the member for Litchfield said one

morning, that great song sung by Debbie Reynolds and he pointed out

Debbie Reynolds danced in the routine but she was dubbed, you

should know that. He was a great friend of Stephen Sondheim and he

used every gal -- he used to tell me, lines from Sweeney Todd, stick

to priest, he said. His favourite lyric was Shepheard's pie leopard

with Leopard on top. I think he probably outlived his dealer from

Leeds because he was certainly wearing from a line in the end and

that was not enough to have a load suit, you had to have a loud shirt

as well. I remember he was called in Las Vegas airport and he wanted to

go and buy a jumper and so he went with Claire Ward and he's so a stall

and went straight in there and he and Claire could not decide between

two of the jumpers and asked me for advice. I said, Gerald, they are

hideous. He bought both! He was at university with Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch had never given evidence to a select committee at

this time. We went to Fox Studios to as it were your time his then. There

was this great when Rupert arrived at the end of a very long avenue of

trees and we were at the other end and we marched towards each other

like the gunfight in the OK Corral and I told the story of the lunch we

had with Rupert Murdoch when the phone hacking scandal was happening

and how Gerald had teased Rupert about idea got him thrown out of the

Labour Party at university for corruptly organising the election of

the wrong person, I think they opened the wrong envelope! It feels

like that has been happening for six years in British politics! I told

this story about how Rupert Murdoch was so aggressive in the meeting and

he kept hitting is hand on the table with his rings. I thought it was so

funny we were doing this. I told the journalists we were doing all of

this at Fox Studios and the Judy Garland room. About three weeks

later Gerald came up to me in one of the divisional lobbies and he was

furious with me. Everybody has referred to his reputation for a

sharp dig. He said, you should know better. You told that story. We were

on tour. I thought he was going to say what goes on tour stays on tour.

He said it was not the Judy Garland room, it was the Shirley Temple run.

I hope it is all right for me to refer to something that has been

said in the PLP, but he once started a contribution in the PLP with the

words, as Lana Turner once said to me... Young Member of Parliament

said, what seats did she is that for? He was also a fan of Betty

Davis. Thinking about the last few years, Betty Davis said once, old

age is no place for sissies. I think Gerald would agree. It was a veil

for him sometimes the coming here. He was quite frail. He was

determined when he had to represent his constituents that there were

issues he cared about he would be here and make sure he was here. The

last year I think was tough for him. I know you visited and Clare Ward

visited regularly. He was still singing musicals last Tuesday. I do

not know whether it was Sweeney Todd or singing in the rain. I went last

night, I am moving on to the subject, he used to get very angry

about ticket touts because he thought that was very unfair that

people who contributed nothing to the performance, did not contribute

to the venue, did not enhance the performance for anybody, managed to

make in some cases thousands and tens of thousands of pounds on their

secondary ticket market. I hope the government is very soon going to do

something about this. We are still waiting for a review. Can we have a

Sir Gerald Kaufman memorial debate on ticket touts and the pernicious

scum they are? I cannot help remarking that if Sir Gerald Kaufman

is able to sing along with the numbers from Sweeney Todd he must've

had a very good musical year indeed, pretty challenging lines. In

response to his question about ticket touts, will I refer to the

Secretary of State for culture media and sport, his point about wanting

an review, and draw his attention to the efforts being made through the

Digital economy bill to try to limit what some of these ticket bought is

unable to pick up tickets and sell them at extortionate cost. First I

would like to pay tribute to late father of the house and Billy Mack.

Having arrived in the house in 2015I did. Get the opportunity to learn

from him but one of my observations was how stylish and dapper his sense

of dress was. One of the days he went through the lobby with a

fabulous panama hat on. He spent time with two of my parliamentary

colleagues on an overseas trip to Jordan and they spoke very highly of

him and spoke of how interesting all his Parliamentary stories were. I am

going to leave it to those parliamentarians that had the

pleasure and good fortune to serve along with Sir Gerald between 1970

until 2017 to be longer tribute to him and I would like to offer my

condolences to his family who are here today.

The Hansard Society, widely respected, as an expert on

Parliament and democracy, has warned the current process of scrutiny is

not fit for purpose. The society's directors have warned that if

Parliament is to fulfil its responsibility to hold the

government to account, MPs need better procedures. Will the leader

please inform the house if he is taking these concerns seriously and

will he urgently review the Parliamentary scrutiny process now

so that any necessary changes can be made before the great repeal bill is

introduced? The Honourable lady makes a very serious and important

point and the government and I personally are indeed giving close

attention to this question of how, given the implications of the Brexit

process for both primary and secondary legislation, we can ensure

that there is proper, fully adequate Parliamentary scrutiny and

Parliamentary debate. In terms of one point arising out of the Hansard

Society in particular, I can give some reassurance to her, I hope, in

that any additional powers for secondary legislation that might be

sought in new primary legislation, such as the Gabi appeal Bill, will

of course themselves need to be approved by parliament through the

normal process. -- such as the Repeal Bill. So when a process that

comes elite Matt Gohdes any kind of enabling power comes through,

Parliament will be able to debate and decide properly on questions

concerning the scope, the definition and the duration of those powers. Mr

Speaker, it has been wonderful to hear from a long-standing colleagues

of Sir Gerald but I remember when I was first elected as a new MP in

2010, I distinctly remember taking an office on the second corridor

above Star chamber Court for my office on the basis that if it was

good enough for Sir Gerald, it was good enough for me. I remember to my

delight, the first week I was there, there was a knock on the door and it

was the man himself, Sir Gerald. I was a young MP, only 29 when first

elected, I did not know anyone down here and I was away from home. He

knocked on the door, our constituencies are quite close to

one another, and he invited me to his office for a drink which I

thought was a wonderful gesture, we talked for hours about how Lord

Wilson, Jim Callaghan, the Winter of discontent, the 83 manifesto about

the SDP. He was a living inside to be the of Labour and British

history. We talked about foreign policy, Kashmir, Israel and

Palestine. Many of the Labour Party's foreign policy positions are

for now one is that he set as Shadow Foreign Secretary in that time. He

also took very great delight when I expressed my admiration for his

rather more palatial office than mine. He told me he had been given

that over the express competing demands of Tony Benn on the basis he

had had longer continuous service would still mattered a great deal to

him. I believed for some of the distinguished and experience to take

so much time and interest in lots of new members, actually, is the mark

of someone who is not just a great and true parliamentarian but a great

colleague as well. We really will miss him a great deal. One piece of

advice he gave me that day was to never hesitate to raise on the floor

of the House of Commons a constituency problem that you hadn't

been able to resolve through paperwork alone. In that spirit and

in homage to Sir Gerald, can we have, Mr Speaker, a debate about

decent access to universal broadband in all parts of this country? My

constituent, Peter Edwards, runs a business from home and his business

is severely hampered by poor broadband speeds and BT have not

been able to resolve this satisfactorily for me with

correspondence. Surely Mr redwoods should not have to wait to get a

decent broadband connection and universal access to good broadband

speeds should be available to everyone? I'm grateful to the

honourable gentleman and I think all of us know from our constituency

experience how important it is for businesses, large and small, to have

fast broadband access in order to compete and to sell to customers. If

the honourable gentleman would like to let me have some details of the

particular case, I will refer to the minister responsible for digital

affairs. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I did not know the late Father of the

house but as a student of politics, I was aware of him for many years.

Lilly from the tributes today, he combined great intellect, a

principled and political acumen with warmth, humour and insight and I

would like to pass on my sincere condolences to his family, if they

are here, watching, and also to his friends, particularly those on both

sides of the house. I'm very grateful to the honourable member

for Rhondda of reminding us for the work Sir Gerald did campaigning for

LGBT rights, and as a gay woman, I'm very grateful for that and

particularly conscious of the fact that Sir Gerald did it at a time

when it was not fashionable to support LGBT rights and when sadly,

not all political parties in this house supported them but that has

now changed and is in great part due to the work of people like Sir

Gerald. Mr Speaker, earlier this week, I wrote to the Home Secretary,

expressing my concerns about the circumstances surrounding the

deportation of Irene Clenell, who has already been mentioned today by

the shadow leader of the house. Can we have a debate, Mr Speaker, about

flexibility and discretion in the immigration system, the need to

respect basic human dignity, family life, and also the need for due

process? Can I suggest that such a debate would be a fitting tribute to

the late Father of the house, who clearly believed in such principles?

Mr Speaker, I completely understand the strength of feeling, as

expressed by the honourable lady, about this particular case. But my

understanding is that Irene Clenell has spent the majority of her life,

including her married life, in Singapore, that a number of

applications in her case were refused between 2003 and 2008, and

that since July 2014, she has had no legal basis to remain in the UK. I

would stress that all applications for leave to remain are considered

on their individual merits and in line with the immigration rules and

subject to the various appeal mechanisms that exist under UK law.

Obviously, the honourable lady is welcome to raise that particular

case directly with the Home Secretary or the Immigration

Minister. But the facts are as I have outlined them. Like many people

here and thousands of people across the country, my life was impacted by

Sir Gerald Kaufman, not least because I was given a copy of his

book for my 21st birthday, How To Be A Minister and it probably had

something to do with the fact that 25 years later, I did government

minister and I have not forgotten brilliant advice that was written in

a book by Gerald about how to deal with one's Parliamentary ministerial

box and with civil servants and how to get things done rather than just

be a spectator in government. I'm eternally grateful for the advice

that he gave in that book. Those who have paid tribute are right to refer

to his assiduous miss with regard to his constituents. I learned,

entering the same entering the house at the same time as the honourable

member for Rhondda, that this session, business question, is the

most important of the week and is valued by MPs for that very reason,

in some ways more important than Prime Minister's Questions because

barring the rare occasions when Mr Speaker as to curtail our efforts on

Thursday morning, it is an opportunity for every member of the

house here on Thursday to raise a point and Sir Gerald often used this

session to raise a point and on almost all the occasions when he did

so it was a point that was related to a piece of constituency casework.

A government department that had failed to answer a letter, a

minister that hadn't been assiduous in coming back with a quick reply or

even some other institution that had failed to treat a piece of

correspondence from a member of Parliament, acting on behalf of

their constituent, with the appropriate respect and furnish an

appropriate reply. He was absolutely right about that. I think the

strongest thing about our democracy, whatever one thinks about the

electoral systems and so on, the strongest thing about our democracy

is that representative link between members of Parliament and their

constituents. And the way in which members of Parliament to use this

place and their title as a member of Parliament on behalf of their

constituents, to help them, not to enrich themselves in any way, not to

burnish their own reputation but simply to help the weak against the

strong, which is what democracy should really be about. Sir Gerald,

I think, more than anyone in this house, showed us all how that ought

to be done. And all of us would do well to remember, whatever heights

we get to in politics, whether it is just this backbench or the

ministerial office, should remember that is why we are here, and he was

an exemplar of how to do that. He was also extremely, as has been

mentioned earlier, politically brave. I think that my honourable

friend was right to mention, he said it was controversial at the end of

his remarks but it was right to mention Gerald's position on the

state of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinian people. It was

extremely brave of him to raise those issues in this house in the

way that he did. It is to his eternal credit that he did so. I

just want to mention one other thing about him. People have mentioned how

dedicated he was to his constituency. I was having tea in

the tearoom one morning, as I often do, probably with my honourable

friend, the member for the Rhondda, and as we were sat there, Gerald

came in, dressed, as usual, in a colourful fashion, and I think my

honourable friend and I had a brief debate about exactly what colour his

suit was and whether a word existed in the English language to describe

that,. But -- that colour. But he seemed to have a spring in his step

that particular morning, only about four years ago, I think, and he

looked absolutely delighted. We wonder if he had been to a musical

the night before because he was whistling and had a spring in his

step as he came into the tea room and then the penny dropped. The

boundary commission proposals had just been published and Manchester

Gorton was not to be dissected or split up in any way. Sir Gerald was

absolutely delighted that he could go on saying, "Yes, I will be

standing at the next election and the one after", as honourable

members referred to earlier. My friend from the Rhondda also

mentioned Rupert Murdoch and as this is a business question session, I

think Gerald would have wanted this issue to be raised. The leader of

the house will have read the press reports about the speech being made

today in relation to the takeover by 20th Century Fox, the proposed

takeover of Sky. I just wondered if he would like to tell the house how

the government intends to inform the house of its intentions in relation

to that announcement? Indeed, the honourable gentleman raises an

important issue about media ownership. He will know, that my

right honourable friend the Secretary of State has do act in a

quasi-judicial role in taking decisions about any proposed merger

and it would therefore be wrong for her to express any kind of you in

advance of any formal notification being made. -- kind of view. If

there is a formal notification, she will take whatever decisions fall to

her by law to do. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Anyone who shares

the love of musicals, Judy Garland, Betty Davis, and can begin a

sentence with the words, "As Lana Turner once said to me..." Is

positively sounded my book, although not knowing him well at all, it is

clear that there is much admiration for him, particularly amongst his

colleagues on the Labour benches so I which is family, friends and

colleagues on the Labour benches Mike is -- my sincere condolences.

Mr Speaker, on the 24th of this month, it will be exactly one year

since the shopkeeper Asad Shah was killed in my constituency, by a man

by the name Tanvir Ahmed. Members may know that in the newspapers

today, there is coverage of a celebration, I hate to call it that,

celebrating his death and treating his murder with veneration in

Pakistan. Mr Shah was one of the most gentle and kind people ever to

own a shop anywhere in the UK. He was loved by many people on the

south side of Glasgow. So will the leader of the house join me in

condemning that horrifying display that we can see in newspaper

coverage and online coverage, and will he also do something to make

sure that what we remember is the kindness of this wonderful man, his

wonderful family, and not the demagoguery of the man who took him

from us? honourable gentleman and I'm sure

with the entire house in expressing unreserved revulsion and

condemnation of the event that he has described. It is frankly

sickening to hear that human beings could be prepared to behave in such

a fashion. I remember just under a year ago, from reading and seeing

news reports of the sense of shock and genuine grief on the part of

people in the south side of Glasgow, people from very different

and religious heritage, in feeling and religious heritage, in feeling

that they had lost a friend and a devoted champion of community life

and that is how we should remember and I think in a sense the best

tribute would be for people in Glasgow in particular but for all of

us to redouble our resolve to eradicate from our society this