PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

17 Debate on the Address
9 MAY 2012
Debate on the Address
18
Downing street dinners to donors; and Fred Michel and
the 163 pages of e-mails. Three lobbying scandals, but
no Bill!
Last week, the Prime Minister applied to have prior
access to the evidence of Leveson as a core participant.
I have to say that he is one of the few people left who
did not already think he was a core participant in the
whole News Corporation scandal: he hired the editor,
he sent the texts, he even rode the horse, and his Culture
Secretary backed the bid. It does not get much more
core than that. This is not just a Westminster story because
it shows whose side the Prime Minister is on. What did
he say to Rebekah Brooks after she was forced to resign
following revelations that Milly Dowler’s phone had
been hacked? We learn from the newspapers that he said:
“Sorry I couldn’t have been as loyal to you as you have been to
me.”
That goes to the very heart of the problem with this
Government and this Prime Minister: they stand up for
the wrong people. Two years ago in the rose garden they
promised change. Yesterday in the tractor factory all
they could offer was more of the same. The Prime
Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister: two leaders
out of touch with the country, out of touch even with
their own parties, locked together not on principle or
policy but in determination to hang on to office for
another three years. So halfway through this Government
and particularly after last Thursday, is it not time that
the Government stopped governing for the few and
started listening to the many?
3.19 pm
The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron): Let me begin,
as the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward
Miliband) did, by paying tribute to those servicemen
who have tragically lost their lives in Afghanistan:
Guardsman Michael Roland of 1st Battalion the Grenadier
Guards, and Corporal Andrew Roberts and Private
Ratu Silibaravi of 23 Pioneer Regiment, the Royal
Logistic Corps. They acted heroically and died serving
their country, and we must always honour their memory.
We have just finished the longest Session of Parliament
for more than 100 years, and I am proud to say that
in that Session we brought down the deficit, capped
welfare, scrapped ID cards, introduced free schools,
accelerated academies, brought in the pupil premium,
binned the jobs tax, raised the personal allowance and
froze the council tax. That was just the start of clearing
up the mess left by the Labour party and demonstrating
that this will be a Government on the side of people
who work hard and do the right thing.
Let me say something that I hope will unite hon.
Members on both sides of the House. The last Session
of Parliament also made an impact not just at home but
around the world. We fed more than 2.5 million people
facing famine and starvation, we supported over 5.5 million
children to go to school in the poorest countries of our
world and we immunised a child against diseases every
2.5 seconds of the last parliamentary Session. And, yes,
it was in the last Session that Parliament stood up to
Colonel Gaddafi, backed the action that stopped him
slaughtering his own people and showed once again
that when it comes to the cause of democracy, all sides
of this Parliament can unite in defence of freedom.
As the Leader of the Opposition said, during the last
parliamentary Session we also lost two much-respected
and hard-working Members of the House. David Cairns
gave up his first vocation as a Catholic priest for his
second, which was to serve his constituents and sit on
these Benches. He was an exceptionally kind man whose
quick wit enlivened our debates, and I know that he is
widely missed. Alan Keen served in this House for
almost two decades and made many firm friendships on
all sides of the House. He was passionate about the way
in which sport can change young people’s lives, and his
leadership of the all-party parliamentary football group
is remembered with much affection. I am sure that he
will be looking down at the incredible months of sport
that lie ahead over the next few months. Both Members
represented the very best of this House.
I also think that the Leader of the Opposition was
right to pay tribute in his remarks to Her Majesty the
Queen. It is one of the greatest privileges of this job to
see Her Majesty every week to discuss what has happened
here and across the world. In terms of service and
dedication to our nation, she quite simply has no equal.
Let me turn now to the proposer of the Gracious
Speech. When the Chief Whip phoned me and told me
his suggestion for the role, it came as a bit of a shock. It
was a slightly bad line, and I thought that he had said,
“I’ve asked Nadine to do it.” Although I am always
ready to take it on the chin, there was a slight sense of
relief when he explained that he was talking about my
hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim
Zahawi) rather than my hon. and close Friend the
Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Nadine Dorries).
In the past, there has been a tradition that the proposer
should be a shy and retiring type—the type who keeps
their head down, gets on with the job and loathes the
limelight. I am pleased to say that, on this occasion,
that tradition has been well and truly broken. As my
hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon told us,
he has a remarkable story. In the 1970s, his family fled
Iraq and the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, arriving at
Heathrow with literally only the bags they carried and
the clothes on their backs. But they picked themselves
up and made an incredible future in this country. My
hon. Friend put himself through university, built a
business from scratch and in just one generation has
made it here to Parliament. There is such a thing as the
British dream, and he embodies it.
My hon. Friend’s name has, at times, caused confusion.
As a new Member of Parliament, he was invited to a
dinner in honour of a delegation from Iraq, and was
seated next to my predecessor but one in Witney, the
former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. During the
main course, Lord Hurd turned to him and asked, “So,
Mr Zahawi, what do you do?” My hon. Friend replied,
“I’m a Member of Parliament,” to which Lord Hurd
inquired, “And which constituency in Iraq do you
represent?” Not surprisingly, my hon. Friend replied,
“Stratford-on-Avon.”His speech was in the finest traditions
of the House—witty, wise, entertaining and erudite.
I praise him for what he said.
Let me turn to the seconder of the Gracious Speech.
Again, when I was told the name, I was not too sure.
The first things I heard were “Scottish MP” and
“Gordon”—I see some nervous looks on the Opposition
Front Bench, too. I refer to one of the House’s most
distinguished Members, the right hon. Member for
Gordon (Malcolm Bruce) who, as a Liberal Democrat,
takes very seriously the motto inspired by his namesake
Robert the Bruce: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try
and try again”—although as he told us in his case he