§ Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington. North)On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. You will recall that earlier today there was a private notice question to the Home Secretary about the removal of applicants for refugee status in Britain. You may well be aware—but, if not, I am glad to tell you—that judicial review applications have been lodged on behalf of all those people and that they have now been allowed by the Home Secretary to remain in this country so that their cases can be properly heard. In view of the statements made today by the Minister and his extreme reluctance to accept that there should be proper consideration of these cases, could you now arrange for him to come back to the House and say that he has a duty to consider these matters rather than to attempt to throw people out of this country before they have had a chance to exercise their legal rights?
§ Mr. SpeakerIs this on the same point of order?
§ Mr. NellistFurther to that point of order, Mr. Speaker —[Interruption.] I hope that we can have a bit of quiet from the racist tendency in the Conservative party. That is a general comment. I do not name any individual hon. Member.
Within the last half hour the Press Association has reported that the forced removals—information about which was given to you, Mr. Speaker, by the Minister of State, Home Office this afternoon in reply to the private notice question of my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Mr. Dubs)—have been deferred.
876 My point of order is that during debates last year on the introduction of the visa system for Sri Lankan and especially Tamil refugees, clear indications were given that the rights of Members of Parliament to telephone the Home Office about cases of asylum would not be affected by the regulations. This morning I telephoned the Home office on behalf of at least two families whose relatives are constituents of mine in Coventry. To say that I received a brush-off from the officials at the Home Office is to put it mildly.
All I am asking it whether it is possible for the Minister of State to explain how, given the fact that some officials in his Department take 18 months to decide whether a refugee case is genuine, the Secretary of State can decide within 72 hours that not one of 64 cases is genuine. yet this evening those removals have been prevented. The House is at least entitled to a full explanation from the Minister of State of that enormous U-turn on those cases.
§ Mr. SpeakerNone of that is a matter for me. It is not the role of the Chair to monitor matters of that sort. As I said earlier this afternoon, what is said from the Front Bench, provided that it is in order, is not a matter for me.
§ Mr. Simon Hughes (Southwark and Bermondsey)Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Having heard exactly what you said, may I very briefly, through you, ask the Leader of the House, or an hon. Member on the Government Front Bench to take back to the Leader of the House a request, for a statement later this evening or tomorrow on a matter of justice in the light of the court case?
§ Mr. SpeakerI am sure that that request will have been heard.