Conduct Of The Honourable Member For Morecambe And Lunesdale, Arms Sale And Trade

EDM number 1187 in 1993-94, proposed by Llew Smith on 09/05/1994.

That this House notes that in the Dispatches programme which exposed the ways Ministers can withhold information from Parliament, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs asserted he had said 'No' when asked by the honourable Member for Blaenau, Gwent whether the decision to grant support for the Pergau Hydro-electric project in Malaysia was linked to any other bilateral trade agreement because he was not prepared to go into any detailed qualification of the word 'No' since 'The Secretary of State himself was giving evidence to the Select Committee two days later' and that it seemed to him 'That's where the matter should be properly investigated'; notes that Parliament was prorogued on 5th November; notes that the Foreign Secretary appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee on 23rd November but did not discuss Pergau before the Committee until four months later on 2nd March; further notes that at that hearing the Foreign Secretary did admit to a 'temporary entanglement' between arms sales and aid given to Malaysia; notes the Foreign Secretary failed to reveal this in replying to the Right honourable Member for Copeland's question on this matter on 25th January; is concerned that the Parliamentary Under Secretary simply referred to the Foreign Secretary's partial reply in refusing to correct his reply of 3rd November, when requested to do so by the honourable Member for Blaenau, Gwent on 26th January; believes this misrepresentation demonstrates a failure to convey the facts to Parliament; and calls for both Ministers to apologise to Parliament and then resign.

This motion has been signed by a total of 36 MPs.