§ Mr. LeonardOn a point of order. I would be grateful for your Ruling, Mr. Speaker, or an expression of view, on a matter concerning the conventions of this House and the normal courtesies between Members. Early Day Motion No. 59, standing on the Order Paper in the name of the hon. Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Iremonger), concerns the personal affairs of a constituent of mine. It has been put on the Order Paper without either consultation with or warnning to myself. I am a new Member, but I am led to believe that this is a departure from the long-standing and generally accepted practices of this House. I raise this matter with reluctance, but it concerns an important point of principle. I have, of course, informed the hon. Member concerned that I felt obliged to take this step.
§ Mr. SpeakerI am grateful to the hon. Member for Romford (Mr. Leonard) for giving me notice that he intended to raise this point of order. I am afraid that cannot encourage him in his desire to draw attention to a matter which may affect another hon. Member but which is quite outside the responsibility of the Chair. The Order Paper is published under my authority and if any Motion were one of extreme irregularity 564 I could give orders that it should be withheld from the Order Paper, but this power is exercised only in the most exceptional cases and nothing that I have seen on the Notice Paper or in the Motion to which the hon. Gentleman refers would justify the Chair taking any such course.
§ Mr. William RodgersFurther to that point of order. While I fully appreciate what you have said about your duties in this respect, it seems that this Motion is a most unusual one and that were the practice to be followed by Members as a whole it could make a substantial and unfortunate change in the acceptable relationships between Members of this House. The hon. Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Iremonger) referred to this Motion in discussion of the business of the House yesterday. If you feel unable to go farther than you have done, even to the extent of making an expression of view about how far the continuance of this practice would be harmful to our parliamentary ways, may I ask whether through you it would be proper to ask the Leader of the House or the Chief Whip to say whether it would be acceptable to them should this practice become commonplace?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Mr. Speaker can rule only on matters of order and I have ruled that nothing out of order has taken place.