§ LORD ILFORDMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is their intention to close Kew Gardens to the public]
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, I can assure the noble Lord most firmly that Her Majesty's Government have no intention of closing Kew Gardens to the public. There has been some speculation in the Press that the needs of botanical and horticultural research at Kew might require that the public should be excluded from the Royal Botanical Gardens, but this is not so.
§ LORD ILFORDMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that Answer. May I ask whether Her Majesty's Government appreciate that it will relieve the anxiety of a very large number of persons in different parts of London who resort to Kew Gardens?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, I am sure that that is so. It was tantamount to undermining the Constitution to put out a rumour of that kind. What interests me is how it started in the first place, and why the Press should publish an apparently circumstantial article which, so far as I can see, had no basis at all in fact.