John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I am pleased that the Government now have an answer to the question I posed before the Scottish referendum—the question of who speaks for England. I am very glad that they are tackling the problem that devolution has posed—that Scotland could vote for a lower rate of income tax in...
Today begins a government journey to give some justice to England. The minimum required is a guarantee that England will not have to pay a higher rate of Income Tax than Scotland based on Scottish votes at Westminster, that England’s MPs have a veto over laws the Union Parliament wishes to impose just on...
56 SNP MPs will be demanding early action on the devolution of more powers to Scotland. They will be pressing on an open door, as the three main Westminster parties as they call them will want to honour their promises and to get this business out of the way promptly. I hope the new...
I go to London  today in the knowledge that we face a period of constitutional upheaval. The new Parliament has to complete the settlement for Scotland, offered by all three main parties of the 2010 Parliament. It has to deal with the growing powers of the European Union, as the Euro area seeks to...
We are fast approaching a statement from Mr Hague on how the government, and the Conservatives, will carry forward the work on English votes. I have long argued we should not be plotting evil – English votes for English laws – but English votes for English issues. Why not adopt the cross party word...
This week there was a final round of consultations of Conservative MPs by William Hague in order to make decisions on the implementation of the recent White Paper on English votes for English issues. It is clear that the Conservative leadership now agree that we do not want a narrow English votes for English...
In today’s debate on the NHS in Parliament I asked Labour why they only wish to talk about England’s NHS when we are in the run up to a UK election, and why they do not explain the poorer performance of the Welsh NHS over waiting times and A and E. The following figures...
There have been varying interpretations of what the Smith Report says on fixing Income Tax for Scotland and for the rest of the UK. Labour and the Lib Dems quote the part which says “Income Tax will remain a shared tax and both the UK and Scottish Parliaments will share control of Income Tax....
The announcement by the Smith Commission that Scotland should in future decide her own Income Tax is an important moment in the evolution of the United Kingdom. The new West Lothian or Wokingham question must be who imposes Income tax on the English? Instead of the Scottish referendum settling our united country for another...
The reason Emily Thornberry’s picture and tweet was so damaging was it revealed Labour’s scorn for England. I can think of no other country in the world where democratic politicians in a major party would regard their country’s flag as a hostile sign, an unbecoming adornment of a voter’s house. Clearly Ms Thornberry...