Business of the House

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point, because that is open for consultation at the moment and may be of interest to many Members. The Cox 3 recommendation was about how we deal with complaints of bullying and harassment against Members of Parliament in an independent fashion. The proposal being consulted on is that it should be done by a wholly independent panel, but that if a sanction of suspension or expulsion from the House were to be recommended, that would have to be voted upon by the House. I strongly encourage all Members to make their views known while the consultation is live, rather than raising questions with me after it has happened, which is one of the risks of public life.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Following on from the question asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz), may we have a statement on vetting processes for officials? I hear what the Leader of the House said about security issues. However, the notion that we had a man working at the heart of government who believes in eugenics and racial supremacy is deeply alarming and, I hope, unprecedented. May we have a statement?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I refer the hon. Gentleman to what I said earlier about vetting. However, I would say that my own view about eugenics—as far as I am aware, this is the Prime Minister’s view too, as he stated yesterday—is that it is the most dreadful belief and, to my mind, fundamentally ungodly.