Welfare Reform Bill

The hon. Gentleman has quoted from the RNIB's letter to hon. Members. The RNIB estimates that 22,000 people will be affected, at a cost of £45 million, which is the sort of figure that has been quoted. If negotiations have gone on behind the scenes involving the RNIB, Ministers and others, as one senses they have, and that is the compromise that the RNIB thinks meets many of its objectives, we just need to be clear about who is inside and who is outside. It would be very sad to get this far only for people with mobility trouble because of sight problems to find themselves just on the wrong side of the line. We need to be clear about that. I have one more observation. The hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr. Harper), who speaks for the Conservatives, said that people's actions in opposition show what their actions in government would be like, and he did just that. We recognise that the public finances are difficult, but to govern is to choose. We have heard the priorities that the Conservative party has chosen and the measure that we are discussing is not one of them. Even with the one or two hints—if he had been listening, that is—that he might be able to get it anyway without having to go through the Division lobby, he still did not think that it would be a priority. I hope that the wider public beyond this Chamber will have seen the way a Conservative Government would act. I congratulate the hon. Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson), who moved the new clause, and I hope that the Government will accept it.