COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES REPORT (PERSONAL STATEMENT) (Hansard, 4 August 1947)

§ Mr. Walkden
With your permission, Sir, for which I am extremely grateful, I crave the indulgence of the House to make a personal statement.
Since reviewing the OFFICIAL REPORT of Thursday last and the Questions and Answers referring to the Report of the Committee of Privileges, I feel it to be right and honourable that I should inform the House that I am the Member of Parliament referred to by the Editor and the political correspondent of the London "Evening News."
I make this very frank statement, Mr. Speaker, because I am profoundly concerned that suspicion would, until this matter is resolved, rest on all my party colleagues. It was not until I read the Report of the Committee of Privileges that I fully realised the interpretations which were being placed upon my actions. I must explain to the House that the essence of my relationship with the "Evening News" was in acting in a purely advisory capacity to Mr. Stanley Dobson over a wide range of political issues and industrial matters. In point of fact, my friendship with Mr. Stanley Dobson dates back many years to the time when he was the political correspondent of the "News Chronicle,"but no question of payment here ever arose. May I also make it quite clear that apart from a feature article, I have never written one single line of any of the newspaper reports of the London "Evening News." I have, of course, written several feature articles in the past for such newspapers as 992 the "Star," the "Daily Herald," the "Daily Mirror," the "Yorkshire Evening Post" and the "Yorkshire Evening News," but in each case they were signed articles and bear my name.
The House will be aware that it is quite a common practice for Members of Parliament of all parties to discuss the political issues of the day with Lobby correspondents as a normal routine matter. I have always understood that Lobby correspondents piece together information gained from many sources before writing their stories. In the course of their work, they have to do a considerable amount of cross-checking. It was on this basis, quite recently, Mr. Speaker, that I entered into an arrangement with the "Evening News" under which I was invited to give frequent guidance on a wide range of political and industrial subjects, to which party meetings were, of course, only incidental, but there was no change in the subject matter as a result of the payment. When I read the Report of the Committee of Privileges, I was surprised to find that what appeared to me as a legitimate transaction had been deemed by the Committee to be in the nature of bribery. No such interpretation had ever occurred to me or, I am sure, either to Mr. Schofield or Mr. Dobson.
So far as meetings of the Parliamentary Labour Party are concerned, it was only after garbled and very biased reports appeared in the "Evening Standard" that I took the opportunity, when approached for guidance by Mr. Dobson, to try to render to him a little advice which would enable the "Evening News" to present a more balanced account of the proceedings without giving away anything of an essential or secret nature, but by no means was I consulted after every party meeting. Mr. Dobson and Mr. Schofield have, by refusing to disclose my name, preserved a journalistic confidence, but I feel I cannot allow either of them to shield me in this matter. If any offence, either apparent or pronounced, may appear to hon. and right hon. Gentlemen to have been committed by myself, I humbly beg to apologise to the House and to you, Mr. Speaker, without any reservation whatever.
Now the small income which I received over about eight months I reported 993 quite openly to an Income Tax official when I called at Sutton in May last and discussed my returns and it will, of course, be taxed in the normal manner. I had no reason not to disclose it.
Finally, I again repeat, if only completely to absolve my party colleagues from undeserved suspicion, I submit to the House this personal explanation. Beating in mind that I have nearly 40 years membership of the Labour party, Mr. Speaker, and have been six and a half years a Member of this House, I am sure hon. Members will quite understand how much I feel my present position, as well as the depth of my feeling, and the feeling of regret, that this connection was ever entered into, especially now when I realise the interpretation that can be placed upon it. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for affording me this opportunity to make this explanation, and whatever course of action the House may choose to take, I can do no other than leave the judgment of my conduct to be determined by the House and my friends everywhere.

§ The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)
Mr. Speaker, I beg to move: That the statement made by Mr. Walkden be referred to the Committee of Privileges.

§ Mr. Speaker
I ought to ask the hon. Member for Doncaster (Mr. Walkden) whether he has anything further to say now. If not, it is usual for the hon. Member to withdraw.

§ Mr. Walkden
Nothing whatever to say, Mr. Speaker.

§ Mr. Speaker
Then perhaps the hon. Member will withdraw?

§ Mr. Eden
I desire only formally to second the Motion moved by the Leader of the House.

§ Earl Winterton
I do not want to oppose the Motion which is a very proper one, but it is necessary to make one point clear. The question of whether or not a private meeting of hon. Members with strangers, Press or others as the case may be, held within the precincts of the House is covered by privilege was, as the Report says, the subject of controversy in the Committee, and two of my right hon. Friends and myself on this Bench have 994 tabled an Amendment disagreeing with the opinion——

§ Mr. Speaker
I must interrupt the noble Lord. I cannot see what that has to do with this Motion. When we discuss the Report of the Committtee of Privileges, to which the noble Lord and his right hon. Friend have two Amendments down, we surely shall discuss them then. We cannot deal with it now.

§ Earl Winterton
What I was going to say—and I am sorry you did not permit me to finish as I think you will agree, Mr. Speaker, that it is in Order—was that it must not be taken that, because we assent to this Motion, it in any way prevents us from acting at a later stage. You have answered my question, Mr. Speaker, by saying that it is perfectly open to us to act at a later stage, but it must not be taken as in any way prejudicing our right and as necessarily agreeing that the hon. Member has committed a breach of Privilege.

§ Mr. Sydney Silverman
I only interrupt to ask the Leader of the House to make it clear that something else also is not prejudiced by the Motion he has just moved, namely, the important question of principle involved in the special Report, which has nothing to do with other personal questions that are involved.

§ Mr. H. Morrison
On the noble Lord's point, Mr. Speaker, which you have dealt with, we are in no way prejudiced on the point he makes; that must be dealt with when the Report comes forward. In regard to the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman), there was a special Report which affects the unwillingness which they were permitted to have a right to by the Committee of Privileges at that stage—the unwillingness on the part of the Editor of the "Evening News" and the political correspondent to divulge the name. If what has happened this afternoon had not taken place, it would have been a matter for consideration as to what the House would have done about that matter. It may still be. What I think probable is that the Committee of Privileges, in examining the hon. Member for Doncaster (Mr. Walkden), will at the same time consider anew the situation vis-à-vis the Editor and the political correspondent of the "Evening News."

§ Earl Winterton
The right hon. Gentleman cannot give instructions to the Committee.

§ Mr. Morrison
I am not doing so. I wish the noble Lord, having been rather precipitate himself, would let me say a word.

§ Earl Winterton
I wish to raise a point of Order. I would like to know whether it is in Order for the Leader of the House to suggest to the Committee of Privileges how it should proceed. I raise that as a point of Order.

§ Mr. Speaker
I did not gather that the Leader of the House was suggesting that. He was only stating what might be a hypothetical course.

§ Mr. Morrison
I should be very sorry if any heat were to be engendered. I am most anxious there should not be. It is a painful business anyway. A point has been raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne on which he is entitled to some comment, and all I am saying is that it would be perfectly competent, if they were so minded, for the Committee of Privileges to consider that aspect of the matter. I do not think the House is called upon to deal with it at this particular point.

§ Mr. Silverman
I am sorry if I appear over persistent about this, but I think many hon. Members regard the question of principle raised in the special Report as of even greater importance than the personal questions in the main Report and would be sorry to agree to a Motion this afternoon if it were to have the effect of depriving the House of Commons of jurisdiction in the matters raised in the special Report. I wish to ask your Ruling, Mr. Speaker, whether, that special Report having been made to the House of Commons, the House of Commons ought not to have an opportunity of dealing with it on its merits, quite apart from the other Report?

§ Mr. Speaker
A Report having been made to the House of Commons, the only people who can deal with it are the House of Commons, and that Report is bound to come here. There may eventually be some recommendations altering it—I do not know—but the Report is bound to come here and an opportunity will be accorded the House for its consideration and this does not prejudice the matter in the slightest.

§ Mr. Eden
All we are doing, as I understand it in supporting the Leader of the House, is referring to the Committee of Privileges what results from the words used by the hon. Member for Doncaster (Mr. Walkden), and that is all. The results of any previous resolution or any future action of the Committee will come back to this House, which remains master of the situation.

§ Mr. H. Morrison
If I may say so, I entirely agree. That is so, and we shall see what the future holds, including what the Committee of Privileges report.