§ Q5. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Prime Minister what instructions are given to Ministers as to whether they may refer to party political matters when making speeches at official functions.
§ The Prime MinisterNone, Sir.
§ Mr. LewisIs the Prime Minister aware that it has been one of the traditions of the past that Ministers differentiated between the kind of speeches which they made when they were political or semi-political occasions and those which they made at official openings? Is he further aware that recently a Minister, in speaking at the opening of a training centre, criticised and castigated the Opposition and said—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would be good enough to indicate to what Minister he is referring.
§ Mr. SpeakerThen that part of the supplementary question is out of order.
§ Mr. LewisMay I go on to ask the Prime Minister whether in the general instructions which he gives to Ministers he will bear in mind that it is necessary that they should realise the distinction between official openings and political occasions?
§ The Prime MinisterI think that all Ministers in this Government—and in previous Governments—recognise this. However, there have been from time to time—and I do not accept the case which the hon. Gentleman had in mind as a case in point—cases of Ministers in all Governments who have made speeches which are inevitably controversial. It does 890 not mean that they are necessarily political. Any Minister of any Government would be almost totally gagged if he were told that all his speeches must be non-controversial. I remember seeing on television the former Postmaster-General opening a big new Post Office development and describing it to 10 million viewers as a great triumph of private enterprise.