The Commons may have rather big legislation to debate at the moment, but the government itself seems to have tuned out until after the referendum is over. There was no Cabinet meeting this morning, and ministers are busy fighting one another at campaign events, rather than bustling about in their departments. Even departmental question sessions have changed from being an opportunity for backbenchers to ask questions about the work of Whitehall and ministers to session where the two camps in the EU referendum work together to get their messages into Hansard.
Treasury questions today was a prime example. Yes, there were questions about the Northern Powerhouse and cuts to disability benefits, but even some of those questions were used by MPs to ask about the effect of Brexit on jobs and immigration, depending on whether they were for In or Out. As has become quite normal over the past few months, most of the helpful questions for the Chancellor came from Labour MPs.
John McDonnell complained about Conservative MEPs threatening to abstain on tougher measures on tax avoidance, arguing that Britain needed to stay in the EU to tackle tax avoidance properly, but let the attack slide after the first question. David Gauke was able to deflect it rather swiftly by talking about what ministers had proposed in meeting with other finance ministers, and arguing that the UK was pushing for progress on the matter. McDonnell then complained that he was mystified as to how Tory MEPs would be voting, and asked for details on how the UK and France were sharing information following the raid on Google’s offices in Paris by French investigators. Gauke again deflected the question by stating what the job of HMRC is, and what the job of ministers is.
And then everyone toddled off, with very little light shed on what the Treasury is up to at the moment – but an hour spent largely arguing about the benefits of or damage caused by the European Union.
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