§ Mr. R. S. HudsonMr. Speaker, with your permission I should like to make a personal statement. In the Debate on the Coal Board Report last week I quoted the case of an official who had been dismissed by the Board some months before the expiry of the 10 years after which he could have claimed compensation for dismissal. I took what steps I could to check up the accuracy of my statement, and indeed before the Debate my informant, at my request, actually obtained the name of the person concerned from official sources. The Parliamentary Secretary challenged my statement and gave supporting particulars.
As a result presumably, the "Daily Express" contained a paragraph this morning to the following effect:
If anyone based a story on Mr. Robert Hudson's account of the Cold Board manager who got the sack when he was just due for a pension he would have been accused of malicious concoction. Five hours later Hudson had nothing to say when the Minister told him his facts were entirely wrong …After the Debate I asked the Parliamentary Secretary if he would give me the name of the person to whom he was 1865 referring, as I wanted to make sure whether or not the cases were identical. The Parliamentary Secretary stated that he did not recollect the name of the case to which he was referring, but that he would let me know as soon as possible. He was good enough to do this and I discovered that, as I suspected, we were referring to different persons. I shall, of course, be very glad to let the hon. Member have the name of the individual to whom I was referring.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Fuel and Power (Mr. Robens)As the right hon. Gentleman assures the House that the case to which he made reference was not the same as the one to which I referred I must, of course, accept his assurance, but in the absence of the name of the person in question, I cannot, of course, go further.