§ Mr. Fitzroy MacleanI wish to ask the Prime Minister a Question of which I have given Private Notice.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member has not my permission to ask it.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerMay I put a point to you, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Opposition? We understood that my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster (Mr. F. Maclean) had received permission to ask a Question on the subject of statements in America by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. May I ask whether you would reconsider the matter and permit my hon. Friend to ask a Question, as we on this side of the House attach the utmost importance to it?
§ Mr. SpeakerI find that proper notice was not given. I am supposed to receive notice at 12 o'clock. I did not see the Question until after 1 o'clock. I understand that it was on my table about 12.30, but I understand that it did not reach Downing Street until 1.30, and I felt obliged to withhold permission. I have indicated to the hon. Member and to the Prime Minister that I will allow the Question to be asked tomorrow.
§ Mr. ButlerContinuing that point of Order. We are naturally obliged to you, Sir, for permitting the Question to be asked tomorrow, but I understand that my hon. Friend had given notice at 10.30 this morning, and he has also shown me a letter saying that you did accept the Question. That is why we attach importance to the matter.
§ Mr. SpeakerI am sorry, the notice did not reach me in proper time. It went somewhere else, and I am not responsible for that. In any case I had grave doubts 38 about whether the Question was in Order or not, because Question 75 on Wednesday's Order Paper very nearly covers it and I was advised that it was a very doubtful Question to allow. But I have said I will allow it tomorrow.
§ Captain CrookshankWith all due respect, this puts us in some difficulty. If an hon. Member receives a letter on your behalf saying you have accepted a Question and if the Minister is then notified that the Question is going to be put, that is all the procedure that is necessary, according to Erskine May. How is my hon. Friend, or anyone else, to know that a letter sent on your behalf has not in fact your approval?
§ Mr. SpeakerI did not realise at the time that notice had not been properly given. I thought everything was in Order. It was not, and therefore I withdrew my consent.
§ Mr. DribergWhile it is well understood that, by custom, the Leader of the Opposition, or the deputy leader, has some rights in the matter of Private Notice Questions, would you be good enough, Mr. Speaker, for the guidance of the House, to indicate broadly the reasons of urgency in the subject matter of this particular Question which led you to say that it is in Order as a back bencher's Question today, or tomorrow?
§ Mr. SpeakerI cannot indicate what the Question was. The hon. Member for Maldon (Mr. Driberg) can wait and hear tomorrow.
§ Mr. DribergWith all respect, the subject matter of the Question has been indicated and if it had been handed up at the Table Office before 2.30 today, it would have been in Order for Wednesday. Is there any special urgency about it which makes it a Private Notice Question for tomorrow?
§ Mr. SpeakerProbably the hon. Member will see. There may be a genuine view that there is some urgency that a public statement should be made on the matter.
§ Mr. ButlerMay I continue this by saying that not only do we on this side of the House regard it as a matter of extreme urgency, but, further, that we were encouraged to he in our places to put our point of view by the fact that 39 my hon. Friend had received a definite intimation from you that his Question had been accepted, and that naturally led us to think that the Question would be asked?
§ Mr. SpeakerThere, again, I must point out that I only heard about the Question at half-past one and I thought all the proper procedure had been followed. I found that, apparently, it had not and that proper notice had not been given. I do not know when the Question arrived at my office, but, as I said, it was not there at a quarter-past 12 because I looked at my table and there was nothing on it, and I went upstairs.
§ Captain CrookshankCould you say, Mr. Speaker, what is the latest time for this to be in Order, because evidently there has been a misunderstanding on this matter, a matter which we on this side of the House, and, I should say, the whole country, consider of enormous importance. It is the prospective repudiation of what the Under-Secretary of State said in an important speech in America. We should like to be guided, if you would be so good as to tell us what was wrong in the procedure which my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster adopted.
§ Mr. SpeakerI should have thought the right hon. and gallant Gentleman would have known by now that my office must have a certain amount of time to find out whether a Question is in Order or not. If there is a Question on the Order Paper which it is going to anticipate, that Question is out of Order. It does not take five minutes, but a considerable time, to look down all the Questions on the Order Paper. Therefore, I have laid down that it must receive my assent by 12 o'clock, and it is not my duty to go through all the Questions on the Order Paper to find out if they are all in Order, or not.
§ Mr. Sydney SilvermanFurther to that point of Order. Is it not the case that the Leader of the Opposition, or the acting leader, if they really attach as much importance to the matter as has been indicated, have certain rights of their own in regard to Private Notice Questions which go beyond the rights of Private Members?
§ Mr. SpeakerI would have allowed the Question if I had not found that the procedure had not been properly followed.
§ Mr. Fitzroy MacleanIs it not a fact Sir, that the Question was in your office by 12 o'clock, although you were not there?
§ Mr. SpeakerNot that I know of. I do not know where the hon. Member sent it. I have no knowledge of that. I understand the Question went to the Table Office; that is not my office.
§ Mr. MacleanThe Table Office undertook to pass it on to you and, as far as I know, they had done so by mid-day.
§ Mr. SpeakerI could never accept delegated responsibility like that. The Question must come to my office and nowhere else. That is why the delay occurred.