HC Deb 09 February 1983 vol 36 cc1007-8

4 pm

Mr. Malcolm Thornton (Liverpool, Garston)

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. On Tuesday 1 February, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Mr. Steen) raised a point of order with you about the circulation in part of his constituency of a leaflet by the hon. Member for Liverpool, Edge Hill (Mr. Alton) to support his candidature for a seat that has not yet been officially designated by the Boundary Commission. You gave a clear steer in your remarks when you said: Since 4 o'clock a Sub-Committee of the Select Committee on Services, to which I turn for advice on such matters, has been considering this very leaflet". You said that you would be advised on it at some future stage. You went on to say: I think that it goes further than the hon. Gentleman thinks. We want some guidelines for hon. Members who will be in real difficulty. Perhaps at a later date I shall make a statement to the House when I have received the distilled wisdom of the Committee and have had a conference on the matter".—[Official Report, 1 February 1983; Vol. 36, c. 156.] To many of us who often find ourselves in a difficult position, that was most useful.

I learnt at lunchtime today—in other words, long after your statement—that the same leaflet had been circulated in a part of my constituency of Garston. I regard that as a flagrant abuse of everything that this House stands for. I regret that the hon. Member for Edge Hill is not in his seat. I put a note on the board informing him that I was raising this point of order. Although it is not a matter for the House that the hon. Gentleman's unseemly scramble for the seat has caused grave embarrassment to his leader and his alliance friends, it is a flagrant abuse of the conventions of the House, and it has been taken in deliberate contravention of your statement of last week. It is a matter to which, in my opinion, the House should have regard.

Mr. Anthony Steen (Liverpool, Wavertree)

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Besides distributing this scurrilous leaflet in my constituency, purely for political ends, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Edge Hill (Mr. Alton), since your ruling, has accepted an invitation to address students from one of the wards in my constituency, which is not in his constituency and which—

Mr. Speaker

Order. The hon. Gentleman is making a mistake. The only thing that concerned me was the use of the House of Commons emblem for distribution of leaflets by hon. Members. Wherever hon. Members distribute them is their concern. Normally, as I said privately, people like to issue their own party propaganda without bringing the House into it. The Sub-Committee to which I referred decided to refer the matter to the major Services Committee. I understand that it is deliberating on the matter. I hope that all right hon. and hon. Members will bear that in mind until I am in a position to give a ruling. As the house will know, I do not automatically say to the House what the Committee says to me, but I need its advice before I give a ruling to the House.

Later—

Mr. Steen

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I seek your guidance on the point of order raised earlier—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We finished with that matter a while ago. I certainly was not joining in comments on the content of the document. I want to make that clear. What was brought to my attention was the use of the emblem of the House for party political purposes. That is the matter under consideration, and we must leave it there for the time being.