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

The hon. and learned Gentleman has been widely quoted by the press as having said that the man should be sacked—[Interruption.]—by the Tory press, and I see no reason for that denial. All the parliamentary documents that I have been able to examine, including ““Erskine May”” and Standing Orders, contain nothing relevant to this controversy, and confirm no privilege of any kind in such circumstances. The nearest we can come to anything relevant to this huge unwarranted fuss is contained in the excellent briefing for this debate prepared by the House of Commons Library. A statement by one Professor Bradley—