§ Mr. Michael FootOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate how much the whole House is waiting to hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement, but will you tell us, Mr. Speaker, whether you have had a request from the Prime Minister to make a statement on the Copenhagen meetings of the EEC Ministers? It would surely be a breach of custom that a meeting of that character should take place without a report being made to the House of Commons at the earliest possible date. It is a matter of importance for the House to know whether there has been such a request, because the kind of questions put to the Chancellor of the Exchequer may be influenced by whether the Prime Minister is to make a statement.
May I suggest, Mr. Speaker, that on a matter of such importance it would be improper for the Prime Minister to assume that he could, in the midst of a speech, make a report on which he could not be immediately cross-examined by the House. If you have not had such a request from the Prime Minister, perhaps he could make a statement at a later stage. I suggest that it would be a breach of the conventions which the House has agreed on reports of this 952 nature if the Prime Minister were not to make a statement.
§ Mr. SpeakerI have had no such request.