In general, the CORE/TJM proposals and concerns dominated the debate, as the Minister, Margaret Hodge, acknowledged in summing up, though of course some MPs disagreed with those MPs supporting our demands. Many MPs raised examples of corporate abuse and many more mentioned TJM, CORE, supporter organisations and lobbying by our individual supporters.

Margaret Hodge acknowledged this in the Minister’s summing up, saying that Clauses 155 and 399 (Directors’ Duties and the Business Review) had been “the principal area on which most of the debate has concentrated”.

The next stages:

The above analysis draws attention to the debate about how much time will be given to the subsequent stages of this Bill and whether consideration of the Bill will run over into October. The government is under some pressure from backbenchers and opposition parties to give, what is a mammoth Bill, just under 1,000 clauses more time in the Commons.

In essence it’s spent 6 months in the Lords and could spend as little as 7 weeks in the Commons, if it gets passed before 25 July. We wait to see if the government give in to the demands for debate to be extended into October.

At the moment the timings for the next stages of the Bill are as follows:

• Committee Stage 15 June to 13 July. The Bill started in its Committee Stage on 15 June but there is still no agreement on the timing for the rest of the Bill

• The Third Reading is now scheduled for October 2006 which gives us all time to write to our MPs.

Media Campaign around the Second Reading

· The Trade Justice Movement has joined with unions and church leaders in a scathing attack on the Tory leader and is demanding a meeting with him. They are furious the Conservatives are opposing key parts of the Company Law Reform Bill, which is due to go to committee this week after its second reading in the House of Commons’.