Greater London Authority Bill

As the hon. Gentleman will know, many matters are being passed from the Government office for London to the Mayor. The regional housing strategy is one example. That is the right approach, which we are following throughout the Bill. Of course, there is disagreement on points of detail and there are areas on which we need to do more work and have further discussion. However, there are some important devolutionary principles underlying the Bill that I urge all Members to support. It is with some regret that I understand that the Conservatives will not be supporting the Bill on Third Reading, especially because, as we pointed out on Second Reading, the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) and the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) wrote only a few months ago that"““a great world city like London needs a city government. We are today committed not only to keeping the Mayoralty but to enhancing the powers of the office.””" Yet faced with the opportunity to do precisely that today, the Conservatives refuse and are preparing to vote against the Bill. They say one thing; they do another. They have the opportunity tonight to avoid another flip-flop. The Conservatives opposed the introduction of the Mayor, but now they accept it. They opposed the Greater London authority, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, but now they accept all of them. Why do they not bite the bullet and save themselves from having to do another U-turn? They should back a bit of devolution, just for a change. They should back the Bill and let it pass from this House to the other place tonight.