Points of Order (Hansard, 12 June 1991)

§ Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you confirm that it is the right of all Back-Bench Members to express their point of view in the Chamber or outside it, and that any attempt to stop Members doing that would be serious? It should be noted that there seems to be an attempt to stop one Member of this place from expressing a viewpoint. I refer to persistent reports—no doubt you have seen them, Mr. Speaker—that attempts are being made to muzzle the right hon. Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher). Yesterday, the Prime Minister said in answer to a question that all Members of this place have a right to express a point of view, yet there are persistent reports in various newspapers, including the Evening Standard, that attempts are being made—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

Several Hon. Members
rose—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Let me deal with points of order one at a time. I can only subscribe to what the Prime Minister said yesterday. In any case, what is said outside the Chamber is not a matter for me.

§ Mr. David Ashby (Leicestershire, North-West)
Rather than that bogus point of order, Mr. Speaker, I wish to raise a genuine point of order. I am concerned about the membership of Select Committees. I understand that hon. Members are allocated to the Committees according to the strength of the parties represented in the House. It is rumoured, on strong authority, that the hon. Members for Liverpool, Broadgreen (Mr. Fields), for Liverpool, Riverside (Mr. Parry) and for Liverpool, Garston (Mr. Loyden) are threatened with expulsion from the Labour 908 party if they support the Militant candidate in the Liverpool, Walton by-election. If that threat were to be carried out—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. That is an equally bogus point of order. I cannot deal with rumours.

§ Mr. Robert G. Hughes (Harrow, West)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.

§ Mr. Speaker
Is this a genuine point of order?

§ Mr. Hughes
Yes, Mr. Speaker. You are, of course, the guardian of the reputation, in one sense, of hon. Members when they are in the Chamber. I have been grateful to you for protecting my reputation against that of another hon. Member who shares my name, the hon. Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hughes). It is said, Mr. Speaker, that there are candidates in the Liverpool, Walton by-election who claim that they represent the real Labour party and the genuine Labour party. If one of the two candidates happens to be elected, how should he describe himself in the record? How will we ensure that we know which bunch of thugs is represented as against the other bunch of thugs?

§ Mr. Speaker
I am surprised that the hon. Member cannot do better than that. I understand that there are also candidates in elections that call themselves loonie-this and loonie-that. I think that we had better get on.