Points of Order Debate

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Points of Order

Greg Mulholland Excerpts
Monday 6th June 2016

(8 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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What I would say to the hon. Gentleman, to whom I am grateful, is as follows. First, the matter is not sub judice—he was not suggesting that it is, but I understand that it is not. Secondly, however, I think it prudent and wise to leave the investigating authorities to conduct their investigations, and not to seek to do so ourselves in this Chamber with an imagined expertise and authority. Last, when the hon. Gentleman seeks my wider guidance, I think it best to avoid the hypothetical and to deal with these matters as and when—but only as and when—they arise. We will leave it there.

Greg Mulholland Portrait Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)
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On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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On a different and unrelated matter, I am sure. The hon. Gentleman is nodding solemnly and sagely.

Greg Mulholland Portrait Greg Mulholland
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Thank you, Mr Speaker. I seek your advice for the second time in a matter of months. A ministerial visit has been organised to the excellent Makkah mosque in Headingley in my constituency. On this occasion, I had to drag it out of the office of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the visit was for. I was delighted he was doing it, but can you make it clear to Ministers that, while we welcome their visits, they should have the courtesy to tell us where they are going and what they are doing?

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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First, I think it best that Ministers who are going to visit colleagues’ constituencies are explicit and candid about these matters, subject only to security considerations. It is much better to tell colleagues what the visit is about than to deprive them of that information. Secondly, I must say that I have always found the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who visited my own constituency recently, the very embodiment of courtesy.