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Speaker's Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary Estate

One of the things that I think all colleagues point out when we show friends and visitors around the House of Commons is the picture of Speaker Lenthall, one of your predecessors, Mr. Speaker, robustly standing up to the people whom King Charles I sent here in 1642 to arrest colleagues. The colleagues were not here—the birds had flown. Of course, it is not quite the same when police officers come to the door, but the issue is the same: does this place have a right to protect its activities and what are those rights? Your great city, Mr. Speaker, and this great city have many citizens who understand the law very well. If the police knocked on the door of one of my constituents in Southwark or Bermondsey, everybody inside would know two basic things. First, they do not have to let the police in unless they have a warrant. Secondly, that applies not only in respect of a warrant for the person in question, but if the police are looking for somebody upstairs. By your statement's admission and by the helpful protocol that you have issued today, Mr. Speaker, you have accepted that something went badly wrong in the House of Commons on 27 November. For whatever reason, the authorities did not, as it were, stand up to the police investigation as they should have. You asked us to set up a group of senior colleagues as quickly as possible, to find out what went wrong and to make recommendations. That is what we want to do. Some of us believe that the issue is important enough to allow the colleagues whom you choose from across the parties in the House, with the experience in the House and with the House's rights and privileges, to get on with that job now and not to wait for weeks, months or years, which is potentially the implication of the Leader of the House's motion today.