§ Mr. SkinnerOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. These are alarming times, and sometimes alarming situations require alarming actions, and the request I am making to you is, to some extent, a matter for you and one in which you ought personally to involve yourself.
You will no doubt have read or heard today, certainly in the exchanges which took place at Question Time, about the alarming statement made by a Privy Councillor and an ex-Minister of Health about the Prime Minister's so-called "emotional instability", etc. [Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder.
§ Mr. SkinnerI have not finished yet.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. May I try to help the hon. Gentleman? If he is dealing with a speech made outside the House, it is nothing to do with me.
§ Mr. SkinnerBut it is, Mr. Speaker. If you will bear with me, I will now draw your attention not to any further comments or references in the speech by the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Mr. Powell), but to Section 137 of the Mental Health Act 1959, which deals with the question of a Member of Parliament's mental instability and his right to sit in this House.
Under Section 137, you have the power to appoint through the Royal College of Physicians, two specialists in mental disorder to decide upon the mental stability of any Member of this House, and I suggest that in view of the allegations which have been made by the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West, who is a Privy Councillor and an ex-Minister of Health, about the mental instability of the Prime Minister, it might well be an occasion for you to take notice of that section and to act on the matter.
§ Mr. SpeakerI think the hon. Gentleman is trying to coax me on to very dangerous ground. I have frequently heard remarks by hon. Members about 609 the mental health of other hon. Members. Once I start getting involved in that sort of thing, I am getting into trouble-However, I will read Section 137 of the Mental Health Act 1959.