John Bercow
Main Page: John Bercow (Speaker - Buckingham)
Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Earlier, during the urgent question, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury gave the incorrect impression that Labour Members of the European Parliament supported an increase in the European Union budget. Is it in order for the Financial Secretary to be asked to come to the House to correct his mistake, given that Labour MEPs most certainly did not vote in favour of an increase in the EU budget, as my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Mr David) made clear yesterday?
Mr Speaker
That is a matter of debate and not a point of order, as I think the hon. Gentleman well knows. He has placed his concern firmly and fairly on the record.
Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In Prime Minister’s questions, in answer to the hon. Member for Macclesfield (David Rutley), the Prime Minister stated that BAE Systems’ loss of work under the defence review would somehow be offset by the A400M programme, which is in fact an EADS Airbus programme and not a BAE Systems programme, as the Prime Minister seems to think. BAE Systems will have little or no involvement in that programme. Will he come to the House and apologise?
Mr Speaker
No is the short answer to that. I will say to the hon. Gentleman—I will not call him a persistent offender, but he is certainly persistent—that that is a point of debate and arguably a point of frustration, but I am afraid that it does not constitute a point of order. He has put his views on the record and he may share them with others. If there are no further points of order, we will come now to the ten-minute rule Bill, for which the hon. Gentleman in question has been patiently waiting.