§ Mr. Harold WilsonOn a point of order. I thought it right not to raise this point while the Prime Minister was answering Questions, although it was raised in the form of a point of order by my hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson) and the Prime Minister replied to it before answering Question No.6.
In that reply the right hon. Gentleman referred to a practice which, he said, had been instituted by me and which he felt was not unfair. In other words, I felt, and the right hon. Gentleman has felt, it right not to group questions which have been tabled very late as that might preclude other hon. Members with Questions down on the Order Paper from having their Questions reached.
1677 In the case to which my hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham referred, my hon. Friend suggested that the reason why his Question appeared so low in the list of Questions to the Prime Minister was because it had been tabled earlier, so that it had a much lower number—that might have justified it being grouped —but that then, at the request of the right hon. Gentleman, it was removed and put back again, whereupon it had a much higher number. Will the Prime Minister inquire into the circumstances of this case and inform my hon. Friend of the result?
§ The Prime MinisterI will certainly look into the matter. I was not aware that the Question was changed at our request. Nor did I understand the hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson) to say that. [HON. MEMBERS: "Yes he did."] In any event, I will have the matter looked into and see if that was, in fact, what happened.
§ Mr. AtkinsonFurther to the point of order raised by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, I may have misled the House. I have been informed that the original Question was in almost identical wording, apart from the fact that it included the name of Mr. Batty, who is Managing Director of the Ford Motor Company. That name has been taken out of the Question, and it is without the name that the Question was returned to the Order Paper. [Interruption.] If hon. Gentlemen opposite do not know, Mr. Batty is, as I said, Managing Director of Ford.
I mention this point only to show that there was a slight change from the original Question. Nevertheless, the principle remains the same. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] The original Question, as published, was near the top of the list of Questions to the Prime Minister. It was certainly among the first three. It went for further consideration—to see whether it was eligible—and when it returned to the Order Paper it appeared as Question No. 17.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe Prime Minister has said that he will look into the matter. It may be a question of principle, but it is not a question of principle for the Chair.