§ Mr. SpeakerThe next complaint of breach of privilege arises from a matter raised yesterday by the hon. Member for Devon, North (Mr. Thorpe), who put to me a letter which he had received from a well known firm of Parliamentary 1146 Agents. The hon. Gentleman read it. I do not think that I need read it to the House again.
In my view, the letter did constitute prima facie a breach of Privilege of this House.
§ Mr. ThorpeMay I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your Ruling.
Subsequent to my raising this matter, I received a letter from the firm in question which, with the leave of the House, I should like to read. It is very short and to the point, and says:
We apologise sincerely for the letter which we wrote to you yesterday with regard to Amendments to this Bill. Mr. Wentworth Pritchard, who accepts fully the responsibility for the letter, saw you yesterday afternoon, when he explained that he had no thought of attempting to interfere with the rights of any Member of Parliament, and apologised personally to you. Nevertheless, we think that it is right that we should record in writing our apology to you and to the House for having written the letter to you".May I say, first, in fairness, that this is a firm of the highest integrity and is among the most experienced Parliamentary Agents in this country. I therefore suggest to the House that this is both exceptional and isolated in the activities of this firm.May I also suggest to the House that, in view of the apology which has been received as a result of this matter being raised yesterday, it may well consider that no further action need be taken.