Official Report (Hansard, 9 June 1986)

§ Mr. Brian Sedgemore (Hackney, South and Shoreditch):

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. During the economic debate last week there were a number of interruptions on points of order, when I was speaking, by Conservatives Members who wanted to stop me from criticising a man called Mohammed Fayed, the anti-Semitic fraudster who runs Harrods. When that happened you intervened and made a number of rulings, and there came a point when I was standing on my feet in this particular position. I had the Floor of the House and I said quite clearly, so that everyone could hear — I have checked it with the radio — that I felt, rightly or wrongly, that I was being denied the right to free speech, that I was not going to continue my speech and that I was going to walk out. I then walked out. I do not want to go over the merits of that, Mr. Speaker, but in fact I have had a look at Hansardand none of that is referred to at all. The whole incident has effectively been wiped out. I have been to see the Editor of Hansard, and he said that that was a mistake.

I have another point, Mr. Speaker, which is that, without knowing that, when I corresponded with you—I do not want to go into what is in the correspondence—you replied to me on the basis of what was in Hansardand not what I said. You also quoted something that I said as an accurate quotation from Hansard, but which is not an accurate quotation of what I said because that was wrong. Hansard told me that it deliberately changed that in order to improve what I said. The combination of the omission and of the so-called improvement was actually calculated, although possibly not designed, to make me look very silly. I do not mind that because that is a fairly usual state for me. But what I say is that if we are moving into an era when there are to be allegations that Conservatives are turning this Parliament into a denial of free speech we do not want Hansard associated with that. I ask that a corrigendum be put in.