Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I bow to your instructions and guidance.
The proposal, as it was, strips out and opposes, in express terms, any consideration of the Barnett formula. It strips out and opposes, in express terms, any attempt to address the West Lothian question. The Leader of the Opposition seeks to entrench democratic inequality and financial unfairness, for the sake—I fear—of short-term electoral expediency. If we are looking together at a long-term deal for Britain that is good for the whole of Britain, that is utterly unsustainable. I think that our debate will have established, at the very least, that the formal position of the leadership of the Labour party—I recognise that there are diverse views among Back Benchers—is now crystal clear. The Leader of the Opposition is opposed to, and is blocking, reform that would ensure that the legitimate concerns of those who represent English seats were addressed.
Let us think beyond the nations. Devo-max could spur democratic reform well beyond devolution. We still have one of the most centralised systems in any western democracy. We still have what is effectively a system of “one size fits all” governance, magnifying the effects of bad policy and suffocating local innovation. I recognise that the coalition has taken steps in the right direction—for instance, it has established locally elected police and crime commissioners, and has given councils a bigger slice of the tax revenue from the sale of new homes—but Whitehall still grips 80% of the purse strings. In other advanced countries, an average of about half of local or regional government spending is financed by local tax revenue.
I think it is fair to say, on the basis of material from the Adonis review to the Heseltine report, that across the political spectrum there is now a groundswell of ideas on how to deliver stronger local democracy—by providing incentives for local business growth, by promoting home building, or, more broadly, by tailoring policy to local needs whilst ensuring that it is accountable to the taxpayers who will ultimately foot the bill. Bringing decisions on those key issues closer to those who vote and who pay for them might not be a silver bullet, but it will play an important part of rebuilding trust in our democracy.
We should all recognise that the no vote in September’s referendum will not end the Scots’ yearning for more control over their own lives, but, rather than those on either side resenting it, the rest of Britain should look on it as an opportunity for democratic renewal, which must take place across the whole Union. As Graham Bell put it,
“we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
I commend the motion to the House.
1.50 pm