HC Deb 07 July 1893 vol 14 cc1067-8
MR. BECKETT (York, N.R., Whitby)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that Members of Parliament were prevented from attending to their duties by the fact that on several occasions at several places the police refused to let them through on the ground that they had been instructed to stop all traffic without any exceptions whatever? I also desire to ask if the police have any right to prevent Members of Parliament from having access to the House while it is sitting under any circumstances whatever?

MR. ASQUITH

I regret extremely to learn that any Member of the House should have been inconvenienced, or should have been prevented from attending to his duties, through any conduct of the police. Strict orders were given on the subject to the police; and as I have received only one single complaint, and that from the hon. Member, and as the House was fuller last evening at 10 o'clock than it has been on any previous evening during the Session, I infer that those orders were well carried out. If any hon. Member has any complaint to make on the subject of his own personal inconvenience, and will furnish me with the particulars of his complaint, I will undertake that the matter shall be strictly inquired into.

SIR J. FERGUSSON (Manchester, N.E.)

I wish to ask whether the conduct of the police generally met with the approval of the right hon. Gentleman; and, if so, whether a notification to that effect might not be made by him to the Chief Commissioner? I would also ask the right hon. Gentleman, considering the expressions of gratitude and admiration that have already been made in regard both to the arrangements and the care of the police, and especially to the great humanity they showed to many people who were taken ill among the crowds, whether such notification can be conveyed to the Chief Commissioner in such a way that it may be made known to the public?

MR. ASQUITH

I entirely concur with what the right hon. Gentleman has said as to the admirable manner in which the police yesterday discharged their duties. They have earned the gratitude not only of the Members of this House, but also of the public at large. I shall consider the most appropriate way of expressing what I believe to be the universal feeling, and I trust I may be able in a few days to make a communication to the House on the subject, which will give satisfaction both to the police and to the public.

MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)

May I ask, Sir, whether any banks in the City were looted yesterday, and how many cashiers wore massacred?

MR. ASQUITH

Up to this moment I am entirely without information on those points.