Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions – in the House of Commons am 3:30 pm ar 11 Mai 2009.
Let me answer the hon. Lady. I listen to her often when I turn on the television at midnight, and I hear her public utterances and pearls of wisdom on Sky News—it is easy to talk then. Let me put this to the hon. Lady and to every hon. Member in this House: is it the case than an employee of this House should be able to hand over any private data to any organisation of his or her choosing? The allegations—I emphasise that they are allegations—are that that information was handed over to a third party in order to find the highest bidder for private information. If I do not ask, or rather if the Clerk of the House does not ask, for the police to be brought in, we are saying that that employee should be left in situ with all the personal information of every hon. Member, including the hon. Lady's own information and that of her employees. Let me say that anyone who has looked at their own un-redacted information can see that the signatures of employees are exposed, that private ex-directory numbers are exposed and that passwords—telephone passwords—are exposed. I just say to the hon. Lady that it is easy to say to the press, "This should not happen," but it is a wee bit more difficult when you have to do more than just give quotes to the Express—or the press, rather—and do nothing else; some of us in this House have other responsibilities, other than just talking to the press.
Annotations
Peter Stroud
Posted on 12 Mai 2009 2:23 pm (Report this annotation)
Kate Hoey made a perfectly sensible point of order. However the Speaker's answer was the reaction of bad tempered oaf rather than a man in a very honourable and privileged position.
Frankly this man is bringing the House into as much disrepute as those MPs who have been playing the system for their own financial gain. He should be apologising to the voters on behalf of the whole House. Not swiping at MPs who dare to represent what the public believe.
He should be encouraged to resign forthwith and be replaced by a man of honour.
David Clark
Posted on 12 Mai 2009 4:43 pm (Report this annotation)
The speaker seems not to appreciate the difference between holding and internal enquiry and taking internal disciplinary action and calling in the police. This is exactly the problem the Home Office had that led to the arrest of an opposition front bencher.
Francis Macnaughton
Posted on 13 Mai 2009 9:26 pm (Report this annotation)
If Speaker Martin thinks that the person that leaked this information is likely to be found guilty of a criminal charge by any jury composed of members of the public he is an even bigger fool than he already seems. I hope the police have already said that there would be no realistic prospect of any conviction anyway even if they were to bother looking for the culprit - or should I say hero?