Points of Order

Greg Mulholland Excerpts

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. The position has been and remains entirely clear. If a right hon. or hon. Member is going to allege misconduct on the part of another Member, there is a duty to inform the subject of the complaint in advance of making that complaint on the Floor of the House.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman must contain himself; his appetite will be satisfied ere long.

It is in all our interests for us to operate on the basis that I have described. I thank the hon. Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) for giving me the opportunity to make the position absolutely clear.

[Greg Mulholland]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Government have now decided that they will deal with Back-Bench business by ignoring it, not taking part and therefore not giving the House the opportunity to express a view. I do not believe that that is acceptable, Mr Speaker. Would you like to comment?

[Mr Speaker]

That is not really a point of order for the Chair now, although I could have an interesting discussion with the hon. Gentleman or other Members about it. How the Government react to individual Backbench Business Committee debates must be a matter for the Government.

I do not think that now is the occasion for me to enunciate an entire doctrine on the subject, but suffice it to say that I am hearing what is being said and attending to it rather closely. I am sure that the Government will want to respect the debates that take place under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee; after all, the House, with Government support, established the Backbench Business Committee.