HC Deb 06 May 1970 vol 801 c407
Mr. Lomas

I wish to raise with you, Mr. Speaker, a point of order of which I gave your office notice this morning.

Are you aware that on Monday, 4th May, when the Government were defeated by one vote, voting in the Aye Lobby with the Conservatives was your honourable self? You are recorded in HANSARD as voting with the Opposition.

I wonder whether you would explain how impartial Mr. Speaker is in these matters. If you had not voted in that Division, the result would have been a tie and you would then have given your casting vote in favour of the Government, and they would have had the Clause they wanted in the Bill. Can you explain the constitutional position to us, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member has called attention to a unique printer's error in HANSARD, so unique that it makes yesterday's copy of HANSARD a collector's piece. The error has been corrected in the erratum in today's HANSARD, which the hon. Member must have read.

The Division list itself, which is the official record, contains the accurate account and shows that the hon. Member for Dorset, South (Mr. Evelyn King) and not the right hon. Speaker of the House of Commons voted in the Aye Lobby.

Back to