§ Mr. SpeakerDr. Winstanley, personal explanation.
§ Dr. WinstanleyMr. Speaker, with your permission and that of the House, I wish to make a personal statement.
On Wednesday 3rd April a short debate took place in the House on a motion moved by the Leader of the House regarding a matter with which I was intimately concerned. For obvious reasons, I was not able to be present. Still less was I in a position to take part. However, I have now had an opportunity of studying the record in the OFFICIAL REPORT, and I note that statements were made which I would certainly have challenged had I been in a position to do so. As it is, these statements now remain on the record unchallenged, thus implying that they are accepted. The reverse is the case.
It was suggested that I should have known that by holding this appointment I was in danger of disqualification and should, therefore, have resigned it or brought the matter up earlier. Mr. Speaker, I must insist that it was quite impossible for me to know that this part-time, fee-earning, sessional medical post, which I had held during part of a previous Parliament and which had not previously been a disqualifying office, had been converted into a form of employment with the Ministry of Defence, and had thus become disqualifying, by virtue of a letter written to me by Mr. Fred Bolton, the Director of the Royal 162 Ordnance Factory, Patricroft, in May 1973 under the provisions of the Contract of Employment Act. No mention whatever was made at that time of the fact that the post had thus become an office of profit under the Crown.
I must insist that the arrangement I entered into, the arrangement which subsequently put me in jeopardy with the House, whereby I would continue to be the nominal part-time medical officer at this establishment, although the bulk of the work would be done in my absence by my partners who would, of course, receive the fees relevant thereto, was arrived at after discussion with those concerned in the Ministry of Defence both before and after the election, with their complete agreement, and indeed, at their request, as being administratively the most convenient method of ensuring continuity in the medical care of this establishment.
In any case, I believe it was the wish of the director of the establishment and the medical department of the Ministry of Defence that I would resume full responsibility for this medical work if I were to cease to be an MP at some future General Election which might riot be all that far away. It was thus thought simpler for me to retain the appointment formally.
At no time during these discussions was any mention made of the question of a disqualifying office. The point was first raised some four weeks later by the Ministry of Defence establishment branch, and, of course, I immediately resigned and informed the authorities of the House. In these circumstances, the House may well feel that any reference to cheating was quite unjustified.
I assure the House that at all times I sincerely believed I was acting in accordance with the rules of the House. I am most grateful to hon. Members for their sympathetic and understanding attitude to my predicament, and to you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to make this statement.
§ Mr. SkinnerOn a point of order. Very early this morning I received a letter from the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Dr. Winstanley) suggesting that he was going to ask you to instruct me to withdraw remarks that I had made in the short debate that took place on 163 Wednesday afternoon. He has not in fact read out the statement which I expected him to read, but he has made it clear that he takes exception to the fact that I mentioned that he either broke the law—[An HON. MEMBER: "He did not break the law."]—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Really, the House has spent enough time on this matter. We must move on to the motion on the Order Paper.