Business of the House

The motion about the UK Youth Parliament is on the Order Paper for debate today. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, West (Martin Salter): we want to encourage young people to see democracy as important, and to see the House of Commons as relevant to their lives and the future. It is perverse for us not to let young people use the Chamber when we are not using it, at a weekend or when the House is in recess. It is perverse for us to say that the doors should remain closed and locked, and that those young people should remain outside them.