§ Mr. Anthony GrantOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I draw your attention to today's issue of The Guardian, on the back page of which, in an article about yesterday's Private Notice Question on the British Steel Corporation, there appears a photograph of you, under which there is the caption:
Mr. Speaker Thomas, helping Mr. VarleyThe whole House respects your impartiality, Mr. Speaker, and holds you in the highest esteem. I believe it quite wrong for the Press to imply that you have fallen from your usual high standards by favouring one side or the other. No one who was present yesterday or who read Hansard could possibly take that view.There are a whole series of precedents, Mr. Speaker, whereby accusations of partiality on the part of the Speaker have been held to be a contempt of the House. I ask you, therefore, to consider whether this is a contempt of the House which should be referred to the Committee of Privileges.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The House would be very disturbed if Mr. Speaker was partial. I shall give my ruling on this tomorrow.