 Lawler spoke strongly in favour of televising the House of Commons in November 1985, arguing that if the public did not like what they saw, then Parliament should look to itself to change.In July 1986 he owned up to leading a plot among backbench MPs to make sure there were enough present at 1 AM to vote to increase the allowances used to pay for secretaries and researchers by 50%.The Government had proposed an increase of only 6% and Mrs Thatcher complained the following day about the increase in the cost of Parliament.