I CALLED for the abolition of the unelected House of Lords. A handful of the 844 peers have taken it upon themselves to use procedural tactics to intentionally halt a Private Members’ Bill (PMB) which has majority backing of the elected House of Commons.

Of course, unelected Lords have an important role to play and, when operating at its best, can provide helpful scrutiny, sober second-thought and constructive revision to legislative decisions made in the elected House of Commons. But when Peers adopt the artifice of procedural devices to frustrate the will of the elected House they bring themselves and the whole House of Lords into disrepute.

The Terminally Ill (Adults) Dying Bill faces 1,227 amendments and six more sitting Fridays. They’ve already had nine days and haven’t yet got through the first hundred or completed debate on Clause 2. Artful tactics, sophistry and filibustering are being deployed to frustrate and overrule the elected House. Many amendments have been raised before in the Commons and failed. Others – such as preventing pregnant women from the right to request an assisted death – expose the absurdity of their tactics.

The use of such contrivances will simply precipitate stronger calls for the Lords to be abolished. My motion to the Commons does not directly refer to the questionable system of preferment and patronage which enables and ennobles the likes of Lord Mandleson and Baroness Mone.

Whether I was persuaded to back Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill (Adults) Dying Bill or not, I would still launch this motion. It’s about the pre-eminence of the elected House of Commons over the unelected Lords. The Commons concluded after hundreds of hours of debate, considerable heart-searching and consideration to back this PMB. Peers holding up the Bill cannot assert they’re motivated by a desire to address perceived imperfections in the Bill. This presupposes all Bills reach a point of universally agreed flawlessness before they become law.

It was an honour to be asked to formally declare Helston’s new Banking Hub open last week. I reflected on the first time I met my bank manager – Mr Cheeseman – in Helston’s Lloyds Bank almost half a century before, and how things have changed. Not all has been progress. If a remote computer says “no”, you want to talk to a human being, not a chatbot or to be diverted to an irrelevant FAQ.

After all the banks left the town, this provides an important service for those who prefer to talk to someone than to a computer screen. Well done to all who have done so much to make this happen. All I did is turn up to cut the ribbon. I’m not going to be one of those MPs who claims credit when they’ve done nothing! So, well done. This is a good project, well located and with lovely people eager to provide a great service.