§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneOn a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. I gave you notice earlier today that I wished to seek leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9. Is not the normal procedure that this is taken before the reading of the Orders of the Day?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman may do so now.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneI beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely,
the raising of Bank Rate to 7 per cent and the special deposits of the clearing banks.I submit that this is indubitably a definite matter of public importance in that both the measures referred to were announced this morning will have major repercussions throughout the economy. I have taken the first opportunity open to me to raise this and I further submit that the urgency of this matter cannot be gainsaid. The effect of a 7 per cent. Bank Rate on the Government's housing problem, already sadly in arrears can only be disastrous—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Noise makes for time wasting.
§ Mr. Bruce-Gardyne—as the Building Societies Association has already given warning.
The gravity of the effect of a 7 per cent. Bank Rate, coupled with the doubling of the special deposits on industrial investment, upon company liquidity, can scarcely be exaggerated, particularly at a time when the Chancellor has already announced that the banks will not be allowed to exceed the existing limits on bank lending to finance the forced loan which will be exacted from them under the terms of the Finance Bill this autumn.
The announcement by the Leader of the House this afternoon of the imposition of the guillotine on the Committee stage of the Selective Employments Payments 1740 Bill will make it impossible for Members to discuss the effects of this latest vicious credit squeeze upon private industry at all.
Most urgent, I submit, is the implication of these measures as a symptom of the plight of the national economy and the balance of payments, and the extent to which the Bank of England has been forced to draw upon its international borrowing arrangements—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman cannot discuss the merits and argue the case that he is seeking to raise under Standing Order No. 9.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneI accept that, Sir. I was seeking to show that it was urgent because these borrowings by the Bank of England, during the last few days, have indicated the extreme severity and urgency of the economic crisis which the nation is facing.
I suggest that the measures announced today indicate that the point of national insolvency may not be very far off; and I cannot imagine a matter of greater urgency than that. Yet the Government propose as measures to deal with this situation only such irrelevancies as the Bill that we shall be discussing this afternoon and the nationalisation of steel.
For all these reasons, I hope that you will see fit to grant me permission to move the Adjournment of the House tinder Standing Order No. 9.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9 for the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely,
the raising of the bank rate to 7 per cent. and the doubling of special deposits of the clearing hanks.I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for being so courteous to inform me this morning that he proposed to seek to raise this matter and for outlining the case which he proposed to put.The House will be aware of Questions and Answers given yesterday—HANSARD, 13th July, c. 1454—on the subject of Standing Order No. 9. I think that the House also recognises that the powers given to the Chair are circumscribed by 1741 the practice of the House and by Rulings given by my predecessors.
The present application falls within the same category as an application made on 1st December, 1931, which drew attention to
the very heavy fall in the last 24 hours in the value of the pound ".—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 1St December. 1931; Vol. 260, c. 945.]and the Government responsibility for the situation.The present application also has a precedent on 28th February, 1935, when the financial situation and the falling value of the £ were claimed to be an urgent issue. Neither application succeeded because the Speaker of the day held that neither fell within the terms of the Standing Order. In the second instance, the Speaker said:
… I do not dispute that it is urgent, but it is not one of those subjects that come under Standing Order No. 80. It might just as well be dealt with tomorrow as today."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 28th February, 1935; Vol. 298, c. 1309.]I cannot depart from these precedents. Therefore, I cannot put the hon. Member's application to the House.