Sir Oliver Heald MP clashed with Gordon Brown MP in an intervention during yesterday’s House of Commons debate on devolution. During the former Prime Minister’s speech, Sir Oliver challenged him saying, “My constituents in Letchworth want to know why it is that the right hon. Gentleman should be able to vote in this place about education in Letchworth when I have absolutely no say on those matters in Kirkcaldy in his constituency.”

Sir Oliver was later called to make a speech of his own, in which he expanded his case for a fair constitutional settlement for English voters. After quoting from some of the messages he had received from his constituents on the matter, he said that an English Parliament and an English Executive would be “costly and… unnecessary, given that we have a perfectly good Parliament here”, and that it would “undercut and sideline this Parliament and be bad for the United Kingdom”, and that, therefore, changing the rules of the House to allow for English-only votes for English-only laws would be a “simple solution to a simple problem”.

The full debate can be found here: http://goo.gl/S4vGPo with Sir Oliver’s speech beginning on Column 226, or watch it here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=16014&st=16:26:05.3230000