John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was led to believe that the Labour Front-Bench team was requesting a statement on this morning’s further chaos around HS2—both its preparedness and the resources it is sucking up from our economy. Did you receive any application for a statement on HS2? We have the Business Secretary here today. Does he not realise that British industry, which is in chaos and reeling from Brexit, wants to see HS2 stopped now before it sucks up all those resources?
Mr Speaker
I certainly would not discuss on the Floor of the House applications for urgent questions—as colleagues will understand, it is a long-standing convention that those matters are not the subject of exchanges on the Floor—but I can say to the hon. Gentleman that I have received no indication from any Minister of an intention to make a statement on HS2. He will know that I am very conscious of requests from Ministers to make statements, and never would I be more likely to be aware of such an intention than in relation to HS2, but there has been no such notification of intent to my office to date.
Sir Roger Gale (North Thanet) (Con)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Members of Parliament are being bombarded with electronic communications from Team Trump on behalf of somebody called Donald Trump. I am all in favour of free speech, but I do not see why colleagues on either side of the House should be subjected to intemperate spam. Efforts to have them deleted have failed. Would you be kind enough to intercede with the Parliamentary Digital Service to see whether they might be blocked?
Mr Speaker
First, may I commiserate with the hon. Gentleman who, as far as I can tell, has undergone an irritating and—some might think—exceptionally tedious experience? I am grateful to him for notice of his point of order. All hon. Members receive large numbers of emails and will have devised ways of dealing with the flow. However, while this is not directly a point of order for the Chair, I do not think it acceptable that Members should be bombarded with emails the content of which is offensive. I will ensure that members of the Parliamentary Digital Service, who have the facility to block certain types of email, are made aware of this issue. Moreover, I shall ensure that they contact the hon. Gentleman. In so responding to him, I emphasise that other right hon. and hon. Members might also wish to avail themselves of this service.