Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Perhaps I may help the Committee by saying that when the Constitution Committee, to which my noble friend Lady Hayter rightly referred, appeared to support the notion of 14 days, this was an entirely constitutional judgment in the context of the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill. It was not a political judgment. Perhaps I may draw the attention of the Committee to the exchange between my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith and Mr Mark Harper when he appeared before the Committee. My noble and learned friend suggested to Mr Harper that this was a complete change from the previous practice: "““For example, we could end up with Labour and Liberal Democrats. That could not happen under the present system, could it?””." However, Mr Harper replied: "““That depends on the way people conduct themselves, but I think that it could””." He said that if it was ““early in a Parliament”” that the Government were defeated, as the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, has just suggested, "““and there was a viable alternative government and—prior to having published this Bill—a Prime Minister had sought a dissolution, it is perfectly possible that a dissolution would not have been granted””." My noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith asked him if there was a recent example of that, to which the answer was no.