Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 1:27 pm ar 22 Tachwedd 2023.
Jeremy Hunt
The Chancellor of the Exchequer
1:27,
22 Tachwedd 2023
I thank the Father of the House for his comments, and I will look into the issue of overseas pensioners as he requested. If I may, I will write to him, but I am also happy to talk to him about it. May I also thank him for his comments about what happened in 1997? Then as now, the Labour party was trying to say that its economic policies were basically the same as those of the Conservatives, but the reality was quite different. Because Labour did not fix the roof when the sun was shining, the recession after the financial crisis was much worse.
The title Father of the House is given to the MP with the longest unbroken service in the House of Commons.
The most important duty of the Father of the House is to preside over the election of a new speaker should that office be vacant at the beginning of a Parliament.
A minister is never considered the Father of the House, even if that minister is more senior than any other MP.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
