The Observer, Mr. Tiny Rowland And M.i.6 (No.2)

EDM number 635 in 1989-90, proposed by DN Campbell-Savours on 01/03/1990.

That this House is concerned by the apparent failure of MI6 to make available to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission its confidential files on Mr R.W.'Tiny' Rowland at the time of the Commission's inquiry into the desirability of permitting Mr Rowland to take control of The Observer newspaper; recognises that the facts relating to Mr Rowland, which were in the public domain caused the Commission misgivings before reaching a majority decision in his favour; believes that the conduct of Mr Rowland as disclosed in the Department of Trade and Industry report of 1976, renders it inevitable that the MI6 files could only give further cause for concern as to his suitability to control any substantial part of the media; recalls the advice given to the Department of Trade and Industry by Sir David Tudor Price QC, following the 1976 report, that Mr Rowland and other Lonrho directors should be prosecuted on a variety of charges ranging from theft to corruption; understands that the government of the day chose to ignore that advice in deciding not to prosecute; questions the role played by MI6 in that decision; believes it likely that MI6 has long used Mr Rowland as a source of African information and that a broadly based criminal prosecution could have focused embarrassing publicity upon that relationship; and similarly believes that Mr Rowland's control of The Observer newspaper might also accord with the wider interests of MI6 and that full information on Mr Rowland may have been deliberately withheld from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

This motion has been signed by a total of 1 MPs.