MP tells Blair: Blame yourself for parliament's weakness, not 'feral' media

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A backbencher humiliated Tony Blair when he confronted him with examples of how he had eroded the importance of Parliament during his decade in power.

In a withering attack, Tory MP Peter Luff accused Mr Blair of hypocrisy after he claimed last week that a "feral" media had damaged trust in politics.

He said it was unacceptable for the Prime Minister to blame the Press for the public's declining respect for Parliament when there were at least nine examples of him treating it with disdain.

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Under fire: Tony Blair facing the Commons Liaison Committee

Mr Blair has the worst voting record of any British leader since the Second World War and has spoken in just four debates during his time in power - and three of those were on the Iraq invasion, said Mr Luff.

The MP also attacked Mr Blair for repeatedly invoking the Parliament Act - meaning he could force through unpopular legislation thrown out by the House of Lords.

The Prime Minister had also increased the use of spin by "encouraging" ministers to make key policy announcements to newspapers and radio instead of telling MPs in the House of Commons.

Furthermore, his "first and most symbolic" act in 1997 was to move the Government whips out of their traditional home at 12 Downing Street - and replace them with Alastair Campbell.

Mr Luff clearly riled Mr Blair during the Premier's final grilling by the Commons Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairman of all the select committees.

He scornfully described a speech by the Prime Minister which laid the blame for the "declining importance" of Parliament squarely at the media's door as "remarkable". Mr Luff said: "Are you seriously asking us to believe it is all the fault of the media?"

He quoted a French proverb, which holds that the mark of quality in a restaurant is if the owner is willing to eat there himself.

He said it was important for any organisation that "le patron mange ici". In an attack which flustered the PM, he went on: "Let me put it this way - you have not "manged ici" a great deal over your ten years.

"You have the worst voting record of any Prime Minister since the Second World War, spoken in only four debates - apart from Queen's Speech debates - including three on Iraq.

"You have invoked the Parliament Act on three of the four occasions it has been used - two of them when you had the largest party in the Lords.

"[You have] halved the opportunity for topical questions at Prime Minister's Question Time, flooded the Commons with 22 per cent more legislation than in the previous ten-year period, while modernisation meant MPs did not have time to consider it; timetabled so many Bills that the Commons library could not even begin to estimate the number of clauses that have not been considered in the Commons.

"[You have] abolished the historic office of Lord Chancellor; encouraged ministers to give statements to the Today programme rather than to the House of Commons - and in your first and most symbolic act, moved the Whips' Office out of 12 Downing Street and moved Alastair Campbell in instead.' He concluded: "Weren't you sending out a pretty powerful message to the media?"

Mr Blair hit back: "The thing about the 'patron manging ici' is the amount of times the patron turns up to answer questions."

He said he had spent longer answering questions in the Commons as Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher or John Major.

He added he had agreed to establish the liaison committee so he could be held to account over Government policy - not just explain it in the "political theatre" of PMQs.

 

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