§ Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. During business questions, I raised what I regard a serious point, which hon. Members should take seriously. In the light of the Leader of the House's unhelpful response—which was flippant and party political, unlike the nature of my question—and her suggestion that the matter was for the House authorities, I would welcome any guidance from you on how it might be taken forward. It is important that all constituents receiving communications from Members of Parliament know that their Member represents their views and not merely party views.
§ Madam SpeakerI see very little notepaper from Members of Parliament; they usually telephone my office and ask to see me immediately, if not sooner. I have not had the privilege of seeing what is on their notepaper, but I shall make a point of looking. If anything, this is a matter for the Administration Committee, and I shall ask it to consider the point.
§ Mr. Alan Clark (Kensington and Chelsea)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Is it not a convention in this place that when a Minister has misled the House—accidentally or deliberately—he is obliged at the very earliest opportunity to make a personal statement? It would be perfectly proper and natural for the House to draw the inference from the evidence given by the Permanent Under-Secretary in the Select Committee this morning that, in fact, either the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs or his Minister of State has misled the House—inadvertently or deliberately. The only thing that appears to have been offered—it is most unsatisfactory—is the text of an alleged letter, which has been read out to the House but is not available for us to look at. Surely you, Madam Speaker, would think it preferable that one or other of those Ministers should, if he is to rely on that letter, make a personal statement to clear up the position.
§ Madam SpeakerThe right hon. Gentleman perhaps was not in the House a few days ago when a point of order was put to me along those lines and when I made it quite clear that, if a Minister, however inadvertently, has misled a Committee, it is a matter for that Committee and that Minister. If any corrections were to be made, they would have to be made in that Committee.
§ Madam SpeakerI can take it no further. This is the second time that I have dealt with a point of order on the matter. The ruling is very clear: it is a matter between the Minister and the Committee.
§ Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Will you clarify the status of a document—in this case a letter—from which the Leader of the House has freely quoted but none of the rest of the House has seen? This is a matter of some contention, as you have just indicated. Will you clarify such a 539 document's status—should it exist—and say when the House can expect to have sight of it and therefore be able to deal further with the matter?
§ Madam SpeakerThe Committee can, and I hope will, put the letter in the Library as soon as possible so that it is in the public domain. I have not seen it, but I think that that is the best procedure at this time.
§ Madam SpeakerNo.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Tony Lloyd)Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker. I confirm what I said before on the record: my statement in the House on 12 March was an exact statement of my knowledge at the time. If, given the events of time, I need to correct that, I shall of course seek to do so before the House. At that time, I was not briefed, told, advised or in any way informed either orally or in writing of alleged arms shipments or of the Customs and Excise inquiry. I would add for the sake of completeness, and in accordance with your advice to the House, Madam Speaker, that I wrote, as I undertook to do, to the Chairman of the Select Committee correcting the record of my appearance before the Committee. I think that in so doing I discharged my obligations not only to you, Madam Speaker, and to the House but to the people of this country.
§ Mr. Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe)On a point of order, Madam Speaker—it arises directly out of the point of order raised by the Minister. Two points arise. First, the confusion that exists about the briefing that the Minister had available to him before his appearance in the House on 12 March can easily be resolved; that briefing can be made available without delay and in full to the House, and I ask for that to be done.
Secondly, the Minister of State has just said that what he told the House on 12 March was—I think I quote his words precisely—"an exact" description of his state of 540 "knowledge at the time". The report that I have seen of Sir John Kerr's letter—I have not seen the letter itself—records that the briefing contained a reference to a possible deal between Sandline and President Kabbah.
The Hansard report of the Minister's speech to the House on that occasion does not, so far as I have been able to check, contain any reference to such a possible deal. It would therefore appear that what the Minister has just told the House on a point of order is itself inaccurate. May we therefore please have a full statement that will put those confusions and contradictory statements to rest without further delay?
§ Madam SpeakerAs the right hon. and learned Gentleman is aware, those are, quite rightly, matters for argument and debate between the Government and the Opposition. They are matters of policy; they are not at this stage matters for the Chair. I hope that perhaps on Monday many of the matters that the right hon. and learned Gentleman finds outstanding will be cleared up. I am sure that at that stage questions will be put by the Opposition in the hope that things may be clarified better than, in the mind of the right hon. and learned Gentleman, they have been at this stage.
§ The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Ann Taylor)Further to that point of order, Madam Speaker. As some Members are now in the Chamber who were not here a few moments ago, I remind the House that the letter that we were talking about earlier was from the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Sir John Kerr, to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. That letter said clearly that my hon. Friend the Minister of State had not been told about the Customs and Excise investigation. May I suggest that although the letter is probably technically in the ownership of the Select Committee, it may assist the House if, with the permission of the Chairman of that Committee, a copy were placed in the Library?
§ Madam SpeakerThat is the way to proceed. Perhaps the right hon. Lady would follow that through and see that a copy is available there.