Member

The noble Baroness will remember this well. I am sure she has a well-thumbed copy of the 1997 manifesto at home. She was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to one of the Prime Ministers in that Labour Government and a Minister at the Cabinet Office, so perhaps she can shed more light than others on why stage 2 was never brought forward. But there are many of us who worry that the full stop that she has encouraged us to mark with a highlighter in the Government’s recent manifesto will result in a similarly long hiatus. A quarter of a century after the last Labour Government’s reforms ended up stranded on a full stop, it is only right to leave a legislative reminder in this Bill that this Bill represents an unfinished job.