Prime Minister And The Role Of The Civil Service (No. 2)

EDM number 834 in 1989-90, proposed by Tam Dalyell on 03/04/1990.

That this House notes with concern the Prime Minister's statement in a written reply to the honourable Member for Linlithgow on 27th March, that Bernard Ingram, her chief press secretary, 'as a civil servant, acted wholly properly in correcting, on my behalf, an unfounded newspaper allegation relating to the Government', when that allegation concerned the Right honourable Lady's position as leader of the Conservative Party; notes that the non-party role of civil servants is further undermined by the participation of Charles Powell, one of the Prime Minister's private secretaries, at a recent dinner with Mr Aspinall, Sir James Goldsmith, the honourable Member for Plymouth, Sutton, and Conrad Black, owner of the Daily Telegraph, held for the specific purpose of putting pressure on Mr Black to show greater support for the leader of the Conservative Party in her current difficulties, in the columns of his newspaper; welcomes the refusal of Mr Black to succumb to the blandishments of two-known Conservatives and a senior Whitehall official; and calls on that civil servant to take the only honourable course, retire from public service, and apply for more appropriate employment with Conservative Central Office.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.