Conduct Of Lord Archer Of Weston-Super-mare In Respect Of Share Dealing (No. 2)

EDM number 802 in 1994-95, proposed by Gordon Prentice on 14/03/1995.

That this House unreservedly condemns the persistent unwillingness of Lord Archer to respond to questions about his share dealing activities in Anglia TV; notes that his personal assistant, Charlotte Barton, acknowledged on 23rd January the receipt of EDM 374 and the covering letter from the honourable Member for Pendle indicating that the matter would be drawn to the attention of the noble Lord in February on his return from abroad; notes that the honourable Member for Pendle has heard nothing since from Lord Archer and considers such behaviour a grave discourtesy and recalls that on 13th January 1994, Lord Archer purchased the first of two tranches of Anglia TV shares and notes his statement in July 1994 that it was completely untrue that he bought shares and that such an accusation was libellous; notes that he subsequently confessed that he had made a grave error in buying shares and his later statement that the Department of Trade and Industry report completely exonerated him; calls on the noble Lord to explain why he bought shares on behalf of Mr Broosk Saib, why he was confident the share price would rise, why he asked for the transaction to be done on new account dealing terms, whether the shares were to be held as a long-term investment and, if so, whether the noble Lord or Mr Saib would pay the ú240,000 for the shares on settlement day; and calls on the noble Lord to answer these simple and straightforward questions.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.