HC Deb 20 October 1976 vol 917 cc1464-6
Mr. Speaker

Mr. English—on a point of order.

Mr. English

With respect, Mr. Speaker, may I apologise to you for not giving you notice of this matter? I think that you will agree, though, that notice may not have been necessary in the circumstances.

I wish to raise the issue of a contempt of this House. I do not know by whom the contempt may have been committed. However, I submit to you, first, that, on your previous ruling given to me earlier this day, whereas it was once the case that a question of contempt had to be raised at the earliest possible opportunity, it is now the case that it has to be raised at the earliest reasonable opportunity. In the circumstances of yesterday, when originally most of us thought that the Leader of the House or some Minister of the Crown would be making an oral statement and subsequently discovered that, for various reasons that are quite understandable, that was not so, I submit that this is now the reasonable opportunity to submit this case to you.

I submit to you, therefore, Mr. Speaker, that either the Observer newspaper or certain Members of this House—in one case named and in two cases unnamed—must have committed a contempt of the House. It is not possible in law to believe that neither has the newspaper nor have Members of this House committed a contempt.

I also suggest that in his statement earlier, the Prime Minister had been misadvised when he said that the criminal law had no jurisdiction in this matter because the law of privilege in this House—well described in a report of a Joint Committee of both Houses some years ago, on which no action has ever been taken—was part of the criminal law of this country.

I suggest, Mr. Speaker, that you should consider whether it is a matter of privilege. Without myself wishing to name who has committed the contempt, it seems to me that someone, either a newspaper or Members of this House, has committed a contempt which this House should take into consideration. I further submit to you that this House would bring itself into contempt in another sense with the people of this country if it took no action.

Mr. Lee

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker—

Mr. Speaker

It was not a point of order. The hon. Member for Nottingham, West (Mr. English) has raised a matter of privilege with me. Obviously, the House will understand that I want time to consider what he has said. I shall reply to the House tomorrow.

Mr. Lee

On a point supplementary to that, Mr. Speaker—

Mr. Speaker

I think that we can leave the matter there now.