§ Mr. SpeakerYesterday after Questions the hon. Member for the Isle of Ely (Sir H. Legge-Bourke) asked for my Ruling on a point of order raised during the previous night's Division on the Third Reading of the Industrial Relations Bill by the hon. Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Molloy).
Perhaps I might remind the House of the intervention in which the hon. Member claimed that it seemed to him—I stress the word "seemed"—that a right hon. Member was in a drunken condition.
Dealing with the maintenance of order during debate, Erskine May reminds us that:
In the House of Commons disorderly noises are sometimes made, which from the fullness of the House and the general uproar maintained when five or six hundred Members are impatiently waiting for a Division, it is scarcely possible to repress.Nevertheless, having now studied HANSARD, I think that the words used in the course of the last Division on a very contentious Bill were unparliamentary, and I must ask the hon. Member concerned to withdraw them.
§ Mr. MolloyHaving heard your Ruling, Mr. Speaker, that the words I used were unparliamentary, in deference to your Ruling I unhesitatingly withdraw them.
§ Mr. SpeakerI am obliged to the hon. Member.