§ Mr. Donald Anderson (Swansea, East)With your leave, Madam Speaker, I wish to make a brief personal statement.
Since yesterday's debate on the eighth report of the Standards and Privileges Committee, I have seen a copy of the minute of the conversation between myself and Mr. Andy Henderson of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which took place on 8 February and which was referred to in yesterday's debate. I did not take a note of the meeting and, so far as I can recall, nor did Mr. Henderson. However, Mr. Henderson's minute goes beyond what I told the House about our conversation.
I have no reason to doubt that Mr. Henderson's minute is an accurate report. It must, therefore, qualify what I wrote to the Clerk of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee about my knowledge of the premature disclosure of the Committee's report on Sierra Leone, as recorded in the Committee's second special report. Mr. Henderson's minute also qualifies the statement that I made to the House yesterday.
I emphasise that, when I replied to the Clerk and when I spoke yesterday, I spoke in good faith. In yesterday's debate, I relied on the letter that the Clerk had received from Mr. Henderson, which I assumed to be the totality of the disclosure. I supported the release of Mr. Henderson's minute. However, I now understand that my letter to the Clerk and my statement to the House were not accurate. In the circumstances, I apologise to the House. I wish also to apologise to the House for my discourtesy in revealing to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office certain aspects of the report and of the Committee's deliberations prior to the report's publication.
§ Madam SpeakerI am grateful, Mr. Anderson. Thank you.
§ Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You will recall that I was in the Chamber at 2.30 this afternoon. I was hoping to catch your eye to come in on the back of Question 1 in the name of the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), who was not in his place. I am told that he was in his office throughout Transport questions. Is it not a grotesque discourtesy to the House that a Member should not be in the Chamber after he has tabled a question—
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. It is not a matter for me whether Members are in the Chamber. I call their names if they are on the Order Paper, and that is the end of it.