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Debate on Monday, 23 July 2007, in the House of Commons, led by George Galloway. The answering member was Baroness Harman.

Standards and Privileges

Debate on a motion to approve the Committee on Standards and Privileges sixth report (HC 909 2006-07) and the suspension of Mr George Galloway from the House for eighteen sitting days. Agreed on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
463 c610-38 
Session
2006-07
Department
Leader of the House of Commons
Procedure
Members' suspension
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Related items
Proceeding contributions
George Galloway | 463 c626 (Link to this contribution) I am more grateful for that intervention than the hon. Lady can imagine. It now turns out that the o...
Speaker | 463 c626 (Link to this contribution) Order. I know that it is difficult for the hon. Gentleman, who is frowning. I have a difficult job t...
Show all contributions (69)
George Galloway | 463 c626-7 (Link to this contribution) So you keep saying; having told me you would protect me, we are now getting to the stage where you a...
Lord Young of Cookham | 463 c627-30 (Link to this contribution) Let me begin by dispersing some of the smokescreen that the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (M...
George Galloway | 463 c626 (Link to this contribution) This is a question of double standards. It is about the fact that I am being thrown out of the House...
Andrew Dismore | 463 c634-5 (Link to this contribution) I do not usually speak in debates such as this, although I am a member of the Committee. However, in...
Kevin Barron | 463 c632-4 (Link to this contribution) I shall be brief because I do not have much to add to the contribution of the Chairman of the Standa...
Lord Young of Cookham | 463 c630-2 (Link to this contribution) The commissioner, in his report, sets out why he chose the balance of probabilities. Unless one is i...
Simon Hughes | 463 c630 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman explain why the Committee felt that it was able to come to its views o...
Simon Hughes | 463 c635 (Link to this contribution) These are always difficult debates for this place, Mr. Speaker, and as you evidenced, they are diffi...
Lord Young of Cookham | 463 c635-6 (Link to this contribution) I had not planned to intervene but perhaps I could answer the hon. Gentleman’s questions. Of course,...
Simon Hughes | 463 c636-7 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his clear answers on those two matters. The third mat...
Baroness May of Maidenhead | 463 c637-8 (Link to this contribution) I wish to make only a few brief remarks on this matter. It is always with great regret that the Hous...
Baroness Harman | 463 c638 (Link to this contribution) As the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) says, it is always with great reluctance that the...
George Galloway | 463 c625 (Link to this contribution) ““That’s all right, then,”” as the hon. Gentleman says. The organisation was funded to the tune of m...
Lord Robathan | 463 c625 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. For clarification, when I was a member of the board of Indict, we ...
Speaker | 463 c625 (Link to this contribution) Order. That is not a point of order, but a matter for debate. The hon. Gentleman might catch my eye ...
George Galloway | 463 c625 (Link to this contribution) The verbal facility of the hon. Member for Blaby is not even as good as his written facility. I do ...
Ann Clwyd | 463 c626 (Link to this contribution) I simply want to put the record straight. Indict was an organisation funded not just by the American...
George Galloway | 463 c625 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that they did not. Are we really expected to believe that he never once used...
George Galloway | 463 c625-6 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Lady shakes her head; that is even more extraordinary. She was the chairman of Indict...
Speaker | 463 c622 (Link to this contribution) Order. I know that it is difficult for the hon. Gentleman, but once again he is questioning the hono...
George Galloway | 463 c622-3 (Link to this contribution) Mr. Speaker, you began these proceedings by saying that you would protect me, but every time you hav...
Speaker | 463 c621 (Link to this contribution) Order. What I am seeking to do is to help the hon. Gentleman. If he feels that he is being attacked,...
George Galloway | 463 c622 (Link to this contribution) Of course, I hear what you say, Mr. Speaker. Having dealt with the hon. Member for Hendon and the ri...
Speaker | 463 c621 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman is going too far. [Interruption.] Order. The noise in the Chamber does not...
George Galloway | 463 c621 (Link to this contribution) But on the subject of personal attacks, Mr. Speaker, I am the one who is being personally attacked a...
Speaker | 463 c620-1 (Link to this contribution) Order. I have known many members of the same party to heckle the hon. Gentleman. I have already said...
George Galloway | 463 c621 (Link to this contribution) Well, that may be true in theory; but it is my case that it is not true in practice—and it could not...
Speaker | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) Order. I will tell the hon. Gentleman why. In a less heated situation, I would not allow anyone to a...
George Galloway | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) The point I am trying to make, Mr. Speaker, is that the Chairman’s claim that members of the Committ...
George Galloway | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) Why can I not say that if that is what I believe? Why can I not say that I believe I was treated unj...
George Galloway | 463 c619 (Link to this contribution) I am being ambushed! You crept up behind me. I am coming to you in a minute.
Lord Robathan | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) There is an issue here, because I understand that a conspiracy is afoot. Will the hon. Gentleman jus...
George Galloway | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) I am coming to you in just a minute—not you, of course, Mr. Speaker. I suppose I have to call him th...
Speaker | 463 c620 (Link to this contribution) Order. I must tell the hon. Gentleman that on many occasions Members have had to gather together to ...
George Galloway | 463 c614-8 (Link to this contribution) Mr. Speaker, Dr. David Kelly was a civil servant who could not defend himself, and look what happene...
Simon Hughes | 463 c618 (Link to this contribution) One of the issues that came up during the investigation, which I had not known before, was that ther...
George Galloway | 463 c618-9 (Link to this contribution) That is exactly the point to which I shall now turn. In fact, the power to do that lies with the com...
Lord Robathan | 463 c619 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Speaker | 463 c613 (Link to this contribution) I have known the hon. Gentleman for 30 years, and I do not think that I have the power to silence hi...
Simon Hughes | 463 c613 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman can help us; I shall try to put this neutrally. The report sugge...
George Galloway | 463 c612 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, and I am just 10 minutes into what I am afraid is going to be a long speech, which has now b...
Speaker | 463 c613 (Link to this contribution) Order. I am very reluctant to keep interrupting the hon. Gentleman. In these situations, I usually l...
George Galloway | 463 c613 (Link to this contribution) Mr. Speaker, this is now beginning to verge on the ridiculous. I say again that there are many peopl...
Speaker | 463 c611-2 (Link to this contribution) Order. If the hon. Gentleman says that he feels that the Committee has acted unjustly, he is legitim...
George Galloway | 463 c612 (Link to this contribution) I am really in a bit of a difficulty here. If I am saying that I have not had justice, that means I ...
Speaker | 463 c611 (Link to this contribution) Order. I say to the hon. Gentleman that all members of the Committee acted in good faith. They were ...
George Galloway | 463 c611 (Link to this contribution) Mr. Speaker, you say that there is no complaint whatsoever, but I have one, and I wish to lay it bef...
Speaker | 463 c610 (Link to this contribution) Before I invite the Government to move the motion relating to the report of the Committee on Standar...
Speaker | 463 c611 (Link to this contribution) Order. As I said, I wish to give the hon. Gentleman as much leeway as I can, and I promised—of cours...
George Galloway | 463 c611 (Link to this contribution) With respect, Mr. Speaker, they are highly relevant. It is a question of glass houses and people thr...
Speaker | 463 c623 (Link to this contribution) Order. The best thing that the hon. Gentleman can do is not to seek to twist the words that I have u...
Speaker | 463 c623 (Link to this contribution) Order. I have to give a warning to the hon. Gentleman. He is defying my ruling and is very close to ...
George Galloway | 463 c623 (Link to this contribution) I am really at a loss, Mr. Speaker. The report was leaked on the front page of The Sunday Times: erg...
George Galloway | 463 c623 (Link to this contribution) Of course I must obey your ruling, Mr. Speaker, because I do not want to be named because I do not w...
Ken Purchase | 463 c624 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) attended public school; you have got to excuse his English....
George Galloway | 463 c623-4 (Link to this contribution) I have spent 10 hours on live phone-in radio this week, in front of hundreds of thousands of listene...
George Galloway | 463 c624 (Link to this contribution) Public school education can do that to your facility with the English language.
George Galloway | 463 c624-5 (Link to this contribution) No wonder he wants to draw a veil over this English, which is now enshrined for ever in the history ...
George Galloway | 463 c613 (Link to this contribution) Alas, no. In fact, the opposite is the case. My complaints against the commissioner are even more tr...
George Galloway | 463 c610-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful, Mr. Speaker, for your earlier remarks. I want to begin by apologising to the House f...
Speaker | 463 c612 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman can put the case that he felt that he was treated unjustly; I understand that. It...
Speaker | 463 c626 (Link to this contribution) Order. I know it is difficult for the hon. Gentleman to take a telling, but he must get back to the ...
Subjects
House of Commons Members Committee on Standards and Privileges Galloway, George
Link
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