Gordon Marsden
Main Page: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Last week, on 15 July, in Department for Communities and Local Government questions, in reply to a question about the future of the Government office for the north-west, the Secretary of State said:
“We are currently discussing this with interested parties, including the trade unions.”—[Official Report, 15 July 2010; Vol. 513, c. 1076.]
However, in a letter he sent nine days earlier to the Deputy Prime Minister, dated 6 July, he said that his colleague, the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), and himself had met formally to discuss the abolition and proposed
“to move to an early announcement of the abolition of the remaining eight offices.”
Mr Speaker, is it in order for the Secretary of State to say one thing in the House about continued open discussions when he has already written elsewhere about it being a done deal?
Mr Speaker
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order and for giving me advance notice of it.