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

This has been an important debate, with constructive speeches from my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) and the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke). In a sense, I would like to split the difference between the motion and the amendment. I must say to my dear right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the House that the motion is poorly worded. The amendment makes it clear that the Committee can investigate all that happened inside the Ministry, and call to give evidence those who appear to have systemically organised a breach of confidence on a party political basis inside the Home Secretary's private office—not merely a civil servant seeing some document and being so outraged that he must put it in the public domain, but a continuing breach of confidence and act of disloyalty at the heart of our democratic government. My right hon. and learned Friend's motion does not allow such an investigation to take place. We have had too much partisanship in this matter. Last week, all we heard were criticisms of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary. This weekend, we have heard some unacceptable remarks about the Speaker. Some offices in our state—one thinks of the monarchy and senior judges—are in a sense fused with their occupants, and that may also be the case with the Speaker. If one makes an ad hominem attack on the Speaker, one attacks the Chair itself. The Conservative party must stop that now. I agree with the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe that people should have said no much earlier. Sir David Normington should have said no, the Metropolitan police should have said no, and the House authorities should have said no. It is not sergeants who are required to fall on their sword but officers, and we should take some responsibility in that matter. We cannot put the matter off until the full police inquiry has taken place. The argument about the composition of the Committee—whether party political, regional or gender—is a red herring. I have confidence in the Speaker, under the terms of his statement, my right hon. and learned Friend's motion, and the amendment proposed by the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell), to choose seven colleagues who will carry out their activities independently, without fear or favour. To encourage that to happen, I have to say with regret, as a serial loyalist to my right hon. and learned Friend the Leader of the House, that I cannot vote for the Government tonight, and I hope that the amendment carries the day.