Conservative MPs have drawn up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” with radical policies such as bringing back the death penalty, privatising the BBC and banning the burka in public spaces.
The 42 bills also include legislation to scrap wind farm subsidies, end the ringfence for foreign aid spending and rename the late August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”.
Britain’s relationship with Europe features prominently in the action plan, with draft laws setting out how the UK would leave the European Union and a Bill to prevent Bulgarians and Romanians winning new rights to work, live and claim benefits here from next year.
All of the proposals were laid before the House of Commons last night after the Tory backbenchers hijacked an obscure Parliamentary procedure by camping out in Westminster for four successive nights.
All of the 42 proposed Bills may now be subject to debate in Parliament over the coming months after members of the group staged a four-day sit-in at a committee room the House of Commons' Public Bill Office.
In order to be first in the queue to put down their private members’ bills yesterday (Thursday) morning, members of the Tory grouping first appeared outside the office at 10pm on Sunday evening.
In order to keep their place in the queue the four members of the group adopted a rota, with the Kettering MP Philip Hollobone agreeing to spend four nights crashed out on a camp bed with little but a flask of coffee for company.
Mr Hollobone said: “It was four nights in a rather hot, square stuffy room right under Big Ben – so not conducive to a good night’s sleep. But it ensured that we were first in the queue when the slots for Private Members’ Bills were given out.
“This is a way for us as MPs to ensure that these popular policies wanted by so many of our constituents get Parliamentary airtime over the months ahead.”
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