§ Mr. HaleMay I, Mr. Speaker, ask a question with regard to the rights of Private Members at Question time? In previous Parliaments the practice always has been that when a Minister has a long and important statement to make he ventures to seek the help of the Chair, which has always been readily given, to ask permission for that statement to be made at the end of Questions, so that other questions will not be held up. Today we had a most helpful statement from the Secretary of State for War, which took many minutes to read, and that had the unfortunate effect of preventing the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer from replying to a number of questions which, I am sure, 33 they were passionately anxious to answer. I do not suggest for a moment that that was a smoke-screen to prevent those questions from being reached, but I think that you will agree that such a procedure could be an abuse of the rights of Members, and it might be as well if Ministers were aware of the procedure which has been going on for many years until this Parliament was elected.
§ Mr. SpeakerI agree that the interpolation of a long answer to a particular question in the middle of Questions does entrench on the limited time which I have to do my best to parcel out. There were exceptional circumstances in this case—the deep interest displayed in the question and so on—but I agree with the hon. Member that it would be as well in future if long statements could be deferred to the end of Questions.