EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (INFORMATION) (Hansard, 20 July 1971)

§ Mr. Molloy

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, That this House is gravely concerned at the action of Her Majesty's Government in using the services of the Post Office to distribute and make available the pamphlet 'Britain and Europe' purporting to be a short version of a Command Paper not yet approved by this House, and by so doing involving all grades of personnel employed within the Post Office in political and constitutional issues ; calls on Her Majesty's Government to respect the tradition of the British Civil Service in general and those employed in the Post Office in particular, by not involving them in a major controversial issue until such time as the will of the House of Commons has approved any issue which has appeared before it and has been determined by the House. Yesterday, the Leader of the House, who is held in very high esteem in every part of the House, made a statement which caused many of us great anxiety and upset. The right hon. Gentleman's statement concerned the fact that the Government—it would seem unlawfully—have used public money to distribute literature to put over the Government's point of view—in the view of some of us a very biased point of view—as to why Britain should join the E.E.C.

I and many of my hon. Friends are of the opinion that that should not have been proceeded with without the permission of the House of Commons. Not only was the issue itself wrong, but what is contained in those documents is biased and unfair. Many people have described this as the most momentous decision in Britain's history. On a great issue like this the British people are being fed by the Government with information which is inaccurate and is certainly not full. I suggest that it should be withdrawn.

Another serious point is that the Government, having published this very controversial document without the authority of the House, have now involved civil 1262 servants in a political and constitutional dispute without the leave of the House.

I suggest to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House that they ought now to look seriously at the situation, because men and women working in the Post Office have been involved in an issue which many of us believe is unconstitutional and is certainly of a political character. Therefore, the whole business should be withdrawn.

I therefore wish to present to you, Mr. Speaker, a Motion which I hope you will be prepared to consider.

§ Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member asked leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter which he thinks should have urgent consideration, namely, That this House is gravely concerned at the action of Her Majesty's Government in using the services of the Post Office to distribute and make available the pamphlet 'Britain and Europe' purporting to be a short version of a Command Paper not yet appoved by this House, and by so doing involving all grades of personnel employed within the Post Office in political and constitutional issues ; calls on Her Majesty's Government to respect the tradition of the British Civil Service in general and those employed in the Post Office in particular, by not involving them in a major controversial issue until such time as the will of the House of Commons has approved any issue which has appeared before it and has been determined by the House. I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving me considerable notice of this Motion. I have considered it and I have listened to what he has said today. This is a matter for me. I ruled upon a similar Motion yesterday, and I am afraid that I cannot submit the hon. Member's Motion to the House.