National Security Council Leak

Lord Marlesford Excerpts

Thursday 2nd May 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Marlesford (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, as both noble Lords cannot ask a question at the same time, I will ask my noble friend Lord Cormack to speak first.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Young of Cookham]

The noble Lord uses phrases such as “guilty as charged”. The Secretary of State for Defence was dismissed because he was in breach of the Ministerial Code, which says:

“Ministers only remain in office for so long as they retain the confidence of the Prime Minister. She is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards”.


That is why the Secretary of State for Defence lost his job.

[Lord Marlesford]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that a serious side-effect of such incidents is the constant, increasing rotation of Ministers at every level, which militates strongly against effective government?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

That raises a broader issue, but I hope that my noble friend is not suggesting that Ministers who have broken the code should remain in office simply to avoid the rotation to which he referred. If confidence has been lost, the Minister should go.