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Article: Late deal saves Housing Bill
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- May 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The Government avoided defeat by just two votes on its battered
Housing Bill in the Commons last night, after making a series of
frantic behind- the-scenes concessions to backbench Conservative
MPs.
But it suffered an embarrassing defeat in a Labour ambush on a
key Commons committee which voted against a rise in prescription
charges. The standing committee on Statutory Instruments voted 9-8,
with two Tory MPs absent, against the rise, in what Donald Dewar,
Labour's Chief Whip, hailed as a victory in his campaign of "trench
warfare" to harry the Government.
On the Housing Bill, John Gummer, the Secretary of State ...