14:00 Mr. Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)

Content-free legislation makes this place worse off. It has the same corrosive effect as unfulfilled manifesto promises. However, the Government have an appetite for it: we have had the Child Poverty Bill, the Climate Change Bill—with even more absurd targets—and now the heart of economic policy is to be subjected to the same treatment.

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14:30 Mr. Todd (Sylvia Heal)

I had not expected to catch the Chair’s eye this afternoon, but someone suggested that I might have something to say— [ Laughter. ] I do not have huge sympathy with legislation based on rhetoric, but as the hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie) drew attention to the precedent of the Climate Change Bill, it is worth reflecting that that was passed virtually unanimously by this House. He may have been one of the honourable exceptions who did not stride through the Lobby to endorse it. I was not, as I felt that my constituents had made their feelings clear. I expressed my doubts about legislation using targets for which a Government could not possibly be accountable and for which no obvious answerability could be provided. I sometimes bow to the views that are expressed to me by constituents and I did so on that occasion. The hon. Gentleman may have done that, or he may have held his nose—

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