§ Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. The report of the Royal Commission on standards of conduct in public life, published in July 1976 and chaired by Lord Salmon, said, as I am sure you, Mr. Speaker, are aware, that membership of Parliament is a great honour and carries with it a special duty to maintain the highest standards of probity. In view of Lord Salmon's remarks, I wish to ask whether it can be maintained that such conduct was observed yesterday.
The Minister of State, Department of Employment, the hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), replied for the Government on a Bill which dealt in part with the finances of the main Opposition party. Yet that same Minister is chairman of the Conservative party and spends a great deal of his time helping to raise money for that organisation. Therefore, in my submission, the Minister of State has a particular interest in doing what he can to undermine the finances of the Labour party.
Can this matter be referred to the Committee of Privileges? I submit that an important House of Commons point—not a party point—is involved and that had the roles been reversed Conservative Members in opposition would be as indignant as we are, if not more so.
I am not raising this matter as a party point. We are constantly on our guard against any practice that borders on the corrupt. Yet a Minister of State who is paid £5,000 a year from public funds to carry out his duties as chairman of the Conservative party replied for the Government on a Bill dealing directly with the finances of the Labour party.
304 Therefore, Mr. Speaker, will you give careful consideration to this matter — it could be raised on future occasions and repeated on future occasions—and say whether it can be referred to the Committee of Privileges?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman and the House will know that applications to refer matters to the Committee of Privileges have to be put in writing and can no longer be made on the Floor of the House. I have no jurisdiction over who speaks from either Front Bench. I made the position of the House of Commons entirely clear, I hope, in my statement last week in which I said that interests should always be declared if they were not already known. I think that the Minister of State's position as chairman of the Conservative party is well known, and that seemed to me to be very apparent last night.
§ Mr. Donald Stewart (Western Isles)Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Although I concede that the hon. Member for Walsall, North (Mr. Winnick) raised his point of order after 3.30 pm, you, Mr. Speaker, had not intimated that Question Time was over. As you had not done so. Mr. Speaker, and as some of us were on our feet, the hon. Gentleman prevented us from asking questions.
§ Mr. SpeakerI watch the digital clocks extremely carefully. I accept that questions on foreign affairs ran on a little, and we stopped EC questions at 3.30 pm precisely.