§ Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax)On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, of which I have given notice. The Ministry of Defence announced today that it has begun preparations for a possible war against Iraq. Letters are going out to reservists, contracts are being sought for cargo ships to move troops and equipment, and tanks are being prepared for use in the desert. Furthermore, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, indicated that later this week the US will reject the dossier that the Iraqis submitted to the UN. That is hardly a surprise to anyone who recognises how much President Bush wants to go to war.
The House starts its Christmas recess on Thursday, so MPs could be left without any opportunity of expressing their views about going to war. The last debate on Iraq certainly did not give us that opportunity. Has the Prime Minister or the Secretary of State for Defence said whether a statement on Iraq and a possible war against it will be made before the Christmas recess?
§ Mr. Tarn Dalyell (Linlithgow)Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Hiring cargo ships does not come cheap. Can the House of Commons be told about the terms of compensation before any action is taken? If those terms have been worked out, one draws the inevitable conclusion that the decision to go to war has already been made because compensation is crucial in that matter. I have just returned from giving the Zayed lecture in Abu Dhabi. Arabs from all over the Gulf think that the war is an extraordinary folly that sets the Christian world against the Islamic world. Surely the House of Commons should have a statement before the recess.
§ Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal)I am unaware of the Prime Minister or the Secretary of State for Defence making such a request. However, the points raised by both hon. Members are on the record and the respective Ministers will be aware of them.
§ Paul Flynn (Newport, West)On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I gave notice of the fact that I want to raise the way in which the House authorities 728 accommodate demonstrators. In the main debate last night, my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Mr. Banks) said:
Is it true that the hon. Gentleman"—the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray)—sponsored 1,000 people to come to the House to demonstrate and that he put them in Room W1?The hon. Member for North Wiltshire replied:The hon. Gentleman is wrong. I have sponsored no one to come here today".—[Official Report, 16 December 2002; Vol. 396, c. 636.]A statement issued by the Metropolitan police giving advance notice of a mass lobby estimated that 1,000 people would be accommodated in Room W1, and named the sponsoring Members as Mr. Peter Atkinson and Mr. James Gray. I have spoken to the hon. Member for North Wiltshire to give him notice of my point of order, and he explained that he had not sponsored that group of people because he understood sponsorship to mean a financial contribution. Of course, I accept that explanation entirely, but in case my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham is accused of misleading the House—he is a sensitive person, as we all know—the record must be put straight.There is a further serious point. If the House authorities are booking Room W1 for 1,000 people, we know that at least 970 of them—
§ Madam Deputy SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman has made his point.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich)On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I ask whether, overnight, there has been a transformation of Room W1, which, to my knowledge, manages with some difficulty to hold only 15 people at most?
§ Madam Deputy SpeakerOrder. The hon. Member for Newport, West (Paul Flynn) has certainly made his point, and it is now on the record.