Conduct Of The Right Honourable Member For Chelsea

EDM number 1265 in 1993-94, proposed by Jeremy Corbyn on 19/05/1994.

That this House notes that the Minister of State for Social Security and Disabled Persons informed the House on 6th May that neither he, nor to the best of his knowledge, anybody in his Department had been involved in drafting any amendments to the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill tabled by the honourable Members for Sutton and Cheam, Bristol North West or Bury St. Edmunds; further notes that on 18th May, in reply to a Parliamentary Question, he admitted that he had authorised his officials to instruct Parliamentary Counsel to draft such amendments on 20th April; draws the attention of the House to the statement by the Prime Minister in a letter to the honourable Member for North Durham that it is clearly of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to the House and that if they knowingly fail to do this, then they should relinquish their positions except in the quite exceptional circumstances of which a devaluation or time of war or other danger to national security have been quoted as examples; notes also that in the case of the conduct of the Right honourable Member for Chelsea, these exceptional circumstances did not apply and that it is inconceivable that on 6th May the Minister did not recall having given instructions to his officials on 20th April; and calls upon the Prime Minister to explain to the House why he has not followed the guidelines set out in his letter of 5th April and required the Minister of State to relinquish his position.

This motion has been signed by a total of 44 MPs.