§ Q5. Mr. George Gardinerasked the Prime Minister whether he will recommend the inclusion of a parliamentary 1826 lobby correspondent among the members of the Royal Commission on the Press.
§ The Prime MinisterI hope to announce the membership of the Royal Commission soon. While I am certainly prepared to consider the inclusion of a working journalist on the commission, I cannot undertake that he will be a member of the Lobby.
§ Mr. GardinerIn view of the commission's concern with editorial standards, would it not be useful to have on it a member with some experience of the duplicity of Governments, or indeed of Oppositions? To that end, will the right hon. Gentleman consider appointing Mr. Noyes Thomas, the political correspondent who reported that Mrs. Marcia Williams was to receive a peerage, only for the right hon. Gentleman's own staff to say officially that that was totally untrue and an absurd suggestion?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Gentleman wants to know about the Lobby. I want to make it quite clear that if I do not appoint a member of the Lobby it is not because of any animus against the Lobby. We have all found that the Lobby is a much cleaner place than it was three months ago.
§ Mr. Raphael TuckTrue.
§ The Prime MinisterIf anyone had any doubt about that, which is inconceivable, it has been proved again this afternoon. The statements made by, about and on behalf of a very distinguished Lobby correspondent, who should not be dragged down by the hon. Gentleman to his own level, are no more true than was the statement in the News of the World,last Sunday, which was immediately denied by the Metropolitan Police.
Mr. Ferny HoughIf my right hon. Friend does appoint a Lobby correspondent, will he make sure that that correspondent has written no scurrilous articles about any Members of the House to the extent that the newspaper for which he wrote them had to pay damages to the Members he libeled?
§ The Prime MinisterI know of no present member of the Lobby of whom that is true.