§ Mr. Gareth R. Thomas accordingly presented a Bill to establish emissions trading; to create an emissions trading authority; to require the corporate disclosure of emissions; and for related purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 21 July, and to be printed [Bill 65.1.
§ Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)On a point of order, Madam Speaker. May I seek your guidance—not on the subject of lying, on which you have made the position abundantly clear, but on the subject of Ministers who, no doubt entirely inadvertently, give credence to untruths?
I seek your guidance, Madam Speaker, because of two recent and serious examples. The first occurred this afternoon, when the Prime Minister suggested to the House and the country that 200,000 people were in work today as a result of the new deal, although statistics released by the Department for Education and Employment show otherwise.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. I will not enter into a political argument with the hon. Gentleman. What is the point of order for me?
§ Mr. BercowThe point of order, Madam Speaker, is simply this. Given that the information that the Prime Minister inadvertently gave inaccurately was nevertheless inaccurate, and given that the effect of that inaccuracy is unhelpful to millions of people who were watching on television at home, is there any means whereby you can instruct the Prime Minister to come to the House and apologise to the British people?
§ Madam SpeakerThese are political arguments. I fear that the hon. Gentleman is seeking to prolong Prime Minister's Question Time. If he wishes to pursue the matter, he must do so politically. He must do so through the Order Paper, rather than through the Chair.