HC Deb 28 April 1953 vol 514 cc1971-4
Mrs. Ford

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a personal statement with regard to what happened in the House yesterday afternoon. I wish to make it clear that I realise that I have been guilty of an indiscretion. I apologise most humbly to the House and to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Exchange (Mrs. Braddock) and the right hon. Lady the Member for Fulham, West (Dr. Summerskill).

The article referred to was based on my answers to a series of questions, and I did not actually write it myself. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] There was some discussion as to whether it should be published as an interview or an article, and I left it to their discretion; but I must, in all fairness, add that when the final draft was read to me over the telephone, I did give my permission to publication. I can only repeat how deeply distressed I am, and I apologise again most profoundly.

Mrs. Braddock

I want, first, to accept the personal apology wholeheartedly; but in view of the rest of the hon. Lady's statement, I think this matter has assumed very much greater difficulty and responsibility as far as this House is concerned. Yesterday, I asked you, Mr. Speaker, whether you would look at the article and see whether you thought that there was a prima facie case of Privilege. I should like to ask you now whether you have done that and whether you think that the article justifies you giving a Ruling that a prima facie case of Privilege has been established.

Dr. Summerskill

I readily accept the apology in the spirit in which it has been tendered by the hon. Lady the Member for Down, North (Mrs. Ford). With regard to the reference to myself in that exceedingly vulgar article, I must confess that I have been in public life long enough to dismiss it with a certain contemptuous indifference. But on examining it more fully it was clear to me that whoever was responsible for it—not necessarily the hon. Lady—did intend to disparage hon. Members and to disparage our whole Parliamentary procedure.

I conclude by saying to the hon. Lady that I hope that she will not think that this House in an ungenerous place. Indeed, it is a most generous place, especially to newcomers. Subsequently she will learn this, but in matters which concern our dignity, the parties in this House form a united front. It is for this reason that we ask Mr. Speaker to take the necessary action.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Lady the Member for Liverpool, Exchange (Mrs. Braddock) has asked me for my Ruling on this matter, but, of course, it is not for me to say whether a breach of Privilege has been committed. That is for the House, not the Speaker, and the question which I have to answer is Whether, in the circumstances, there is a prima facie case which will justify a Motion being proposed that the case of the complaint of the hon. Member is a matter to be further considered.

I have read the article, and in view of what we have heard today about its origin, and the fact that the hon. Lady the Member for Down, North (Mrs. Ford) has apologised to the House, I think the House will accept that apology, but it appears that the article was not actually written by her in the usual sense of that term. Taking everything into account, I feel that I must rule that here there is a prima facie case, and if the hon. Lady the Member for Liverpool, Exchange wishes to move a Motion, I shall be prepared to permit her.

Mrs. Braddock

I beg to move: That the matter of the complaint be referred to the Committee of Privileges.

Dr. Summerskill

I beg to second the Motion.

The Prime Minister

It is the ordinary custom, when such a Motion is moved, for the Leader of the House or the Prime Minister to make this Motion to you, Mr. Speaker. It is the usual custom, though we may have had some breaches in it. I am bound to say that there is also a very long tradition, in what I may call minor matters of decorum, when an apology has been made, full, frank and wholehearted, for that apology to be accepted with generosity by the House, and I am not—[HON. MEMBERS: "What about the newspaper?"]—I am not prepared in these circumstances to support the Motion which has been moved. I think the House will fall below its proper level of kindly and generous behaviour to act in this way.

Mr. Attlee

I think the right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister has misapprehended the matter. The whole House was perfectly willing to accept the hon. Lady's apology. I think the point here is in regard to this newspaper, which, in my view, took advantage of the inexperience of an hon. Member of this House and therefore published matter that should rightly be inquired into. There is no doubt, I think, that the newspaper knew perfectly well that it was doing wrong and was doing harm.

The Prime Minister

I had not fully appreciated the fact that no further vin- dictive process or protest was in view against the hon. Lady, and that her frank apology had been accepted by the House. If that is so, I withdraw.

Question put, and agreed to.

Mrs. Braddock

On a point of order. Will you now say, Mr. Speaker, in view of this position and the decision taken by the House, that any comment—and I am using the word "comment" advisedly, rather than report—that is made in any other organ of the Press while the matter is being investigated will receive the condemnation of this House?

Mr. Speaker

I could not give a Ruling in those wide terms, but I think the journalists are very well aware of the views of this House on these matters.

Mr. Baxter

On a point of order. I should like, if you will allow me, to call attention to what I think may be a breach of Privilege concerning the professional activities of the hon. Member for Maldon (Mr. Driberg). It is only for purposes of clarification, and not in any vindictive" spirit, that I raise it, and if I may put the point I should be very grateful. The point is to try to find out what is private and not private, and not so much a matter of taste. In this publication, "Reynold's Newspaper" last week—

Mr. Speaker

Order. Will the hon. Member inform me what is the date of the newspaper to which he refers?

Mr. Baxter

Last Sunday.

Mr. Speaker

I am afraid the hon. Member has not raised it in time. The hon. Lady the Member for Liverpool, Exchange (Mrs. Braddock) raised this matter yesterday at the earliest opportunity, and it is a rule with matters of Privilege that that must be done. The matter is decided; it has been referred to the Committee of Privileges.

Miss Lee

So that there may be no misunderstanding, may I say that, before the suggestion was made that no comment of any kind ought to appear in the Press, I have been responsible for a comment of a very moderate kind in a weekly newspaper which I am sure will not give offence to anybody in this House. I am now making the statement that I have done before any statement to the contrary is made here.

Mr. Speaker

I can only say that I share the hon. Lady's hope.