(Worthing West) (Con)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. You may have been as surprised
as I was to read in The Times today that the Government have paid
£118,000 to a company called Big Ideas to get lots of apparent
objections to the objections to the Victoria Tower Gardens being
used for a national holocaust memorial and learning centre. Until
the close of objections to Westminster City Council, the majority
were against the proposal. Now that Big Ideas has been there, the
numbers have gone up massively, apparently mostly in favour.
Will the Government please explain who made the decision to use
public money to influence the apparent responses to a
consultation on a planning application that the Government
themselves have made? This is the first time I have ever heard of
this happening. It deserves an explanation and perhaps the
Minister can explain now.
Mr Speaker
The matter is certainly of compelling interest to the right hon.
Gentleman—if he has been admitted to the Privy Council. If he has
not, it can only be a matter of time. In that case, it is a
matter not of compelling interest to the right hon. Gentleman,
but of compelling interest to the hon. Gentleman. It is also of
notable interest to a great many other people to boot. However,
the attempted point of order—I use that term advisedly, as he
will understand—does suffer from the notable disadvantage, which
does not put it in a minority category, that it is many things
but not a point of order. In other words, it is not a matter for
the Chair; it is not for my adjudication.
In so far as the hon. Gentleman is referring to something that
seems to resemble an organised campaign, I cannot say that that
of itself is a great shock to me. However, his reference to the
fact that there is public money involved is of course of great
interest and does render the matter worthy of ministerial
attention. It is quite open to a Minister now to respond and to
seek to assuage the concerns of the hon. Gentleman, but I do not
notice a Minister leaping to his feet with alacrity to do so.
Indeed, it would be fair to say that the Leader of the House is
seated comfortably in his perch on the Treasury Bench. Ah—he
evinces a display of interest. Does the Leader of the House wish
to comment? He is not obliged to do so, but we are always happy
to hear his mellifluous tones.
The Leader of the House of Commons (Mel Stride)
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. My hon. Friend’s
point is noted. I do not know the answers to his very specific
questions with regard to the appointment of the Big Ideas group,
but I will look into the matter and I will come back to him on
it.
Mr Speaker
The matter had already been communicated to me earlier today by
another means. If the hon. Member for Worthing West (Sir Peter
Bottomley) is dissatisfied at the end of that exchange, he can
always return to it.
