London and Counties Securities Group Ltd. (Hansard, 15 July 1974)

§ 4. Mr. Skinner
asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether the investigation 6 by his Department into the collapse of the London and Counties Securities Group Ltd. has been completed; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Clinton Davis
The inspectors' inquiries are continuing and I have not yet received the report. I am not in a position to make a statement at the present time.

§ Mr. Skinner
Perhaps I ought to give my hon. Friend something to tell the investigating team to further its inquiries. Does he recall that the Leader of the Liberal Party, as a director of London and Counties Securities Group Limited, had 10,000 incentive shares for little or nothing? Will his investigating team try to establish whether those shares were sold before the inevitable crash? Will the investigating team also take into account the question of the appearance money that was paid to the right for Member for Devon, North (Mr. Thorpe) and whether he should be morally bound not merely to resign his directorship but to pay that money back to the distressed shareholders of the London and Counties Securities Group Limited? Will he also ask the investigating team to look into the desperate take-over bid that was launched by the discredited London and Counties Securities Group Limited just before the coalition collapsed to take over this group at a time when it could be argued that that was a criminal offence?

§ Mr. Davis
The fullest inquiries are being undertaken into the activities of this group. It would be improper for me to interfere at this stage. In any event, I should have thought that it would be wrong to castigate the activities of any one individual at this moment. Moreover, the Leader of the Liberal Party is more in need of sympathy than obloquy at present having taken on free transfer the hon. Member for Woolwich, East (Mr. Mayhew).

§ Mr. Grimond
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of what the Minister said in the early part of his reply, is it not an abuse of Question Time that a wholly improper attack should be made upon my right hon. Friend the Member for Devon, North (Mr. Thorpe) when the matter is under investigation?

§ Mr. Speaker
I very much regret personal imputations against right hon. or hon. Members. Whether at this stage I am entitled to stop them altogether is a different matter. It is more a matter of taste and convention than of the rules of order in most cases.

§ Mr. Skinner
I have had my share and I can stand them.