The hon. Lady may be horrified about letting the public know what she and Government Members have been saying, but we are not. Government Members may be confident in their commitment to the idea that they are somehow tackling the cost of living, but when it comes to opportunities to make progress on such things as logbook loans or debt management fees, they have nothing to say and they should rightly be held to account not just in the House, but online. She would do well to reflect on such matters.
I want to move on to what hon. Members have mentioned in the debate, but may I tell my hon. Friend the Member for East Lothian (Fiona O’Donnell) that I consider us to be master and apprentice in our dress today? She pointed out that the Government seem to have a problem with the doors when it comes to voting the right way on consumer credit matters.
Let me pay tribute to the Minister and the members of the Sharkstoppers campaign. To hear a Minister in this Government talking about the action that they will take on payday lending is a tribute to the work of all those campaigners across the country. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt when she says that this Government want to make payday lenders pay their fair share. She was extremely honest about the fact that she has no idea how much money payday lenders will contribute to the cost of providing debt advice. We want to return to the issue in the Lords once we get that information, but we are happy to wait for the Minister to come back with the sums, to show that payday lenders are paying their fair share. We are pleased that the Financial Conduct Authority is looking at the outrageous practice of charging people in debt with debt management fees, and we will wait to see what the Government bring forward, and consider these issues again in the Lords in terms of whether fees should be abolished outright.
4.45 pm
I say to the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) that there are many traditions worth defending: free speech, the last night of the proms, complaining about the weather—all great British traditions. However, being ripped off is not one of them, and it is time we called time on the rip-off that is a logbook loan and the way that bill of sale agreements are being used. Indeed, from what the Government say, they agree. Why leave our constituents lingering any longer under these outrageous and outmoded forms of contract? We want to push new clause 23 to a vote and say goodbye to bill of sale agreements and the exploitation of our constituents. We hear fine words from Government Members about how they want action on consumer credit, so let us see some action for a change—join us.
I beg to ask leave to withdraw new clause 6.
New clause 6, by leave, withdrawn.