Speeches by Powell.

“More recently, a good friend of mine, Bev Hughes, who is now in the Lords, resigned as an immigration Minister because information she had been given by her officials turned out not to be correct and she repeated it to the House, so it does happen. Let us not underestimate what the Privileges Committee did. I know it i…”

“That is absolutely not a feeling that I have made known.”

“I am sorry if you have had that impression, because I am really happy to be here and to answer these things.”

“Forgive me for not knowing—”

“The 10-year plan, which was a 169-page document, I think, was published to the House first. It was not a press conference about the whole document itself; it was about plans for the NHS. I don’t not take your point. These are balances to get right, but the plan itself was published to the House. The statement was adver…”

“We could have had that afterwards. That is something we constantly stress test and consider—the logistics of that. The reverse of that would be that parliamentary business is not as predictable. Let us say that that day, a press conference with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, at a hospital, near London, had been…”

“Yes. There are logistical things to do. But what I want to be really clear about, what would have happened previously and was suggested—not by the Secretary of State—was that the Secretary of State would do that conference somewhere, while a junior Minister gave the statement in the House. Sometimes Mr Speaker will mak…”

“I can’t remember who Hugh Dalton was.”

“The Ministerial Code, Ministers’ behaviour and the appointment and dismissal of Ministers is a constitutional role for the Prime Minister, who is tasked with doing that on behalf of His Majesty. That is the constitutional role of the Prime Minister. As we have discussed, whether or not this particular matter is in the …”

“No, because urgent questions are not in my gift. It is not for me to influence, or to suggest to the Speaker that he is under pressure to not grant an urgent question—because, I can tell you now, if I even suggested that, he would grant many more.”

“I think you have to use your words carefully, because convention is not quite the same thing. A convention would be the custom and practice that for many, many years, announcements would go to the media, with statements made to the House later in the day, or when the House is sitting—big announcements are made in reces…”

“We make sure we notify the Speaker of statements well in advance of his Speaker’s conference, because he needs to know what is coming that day to decide whatever else. For Members, going on the annunciator and getting sent round by all the various Whips is the business of the day, the statements and any urgent question…”

“That document was published to the House first.”

“It was published to the House first, so we are now having a different conversation.”

“Yet again, I gently say that we are throwing up binary straw men. As I hope I have tried to explain over the last hour and a half, that is not how things actually work or what they are subject to. The Ministerial Code and the conduct of Ministers is a matter for the Prime Minister. However, the expectation of this Hous…”

“I don’t know—you would have to ask the Speaker about that.”

“Absolutely, it is No. 10. I meet with that team, the Whips Office and other relevant people every Monday. We go through announcements, the grids and parliamentary business for the subsequent weeks—two or three weeks hence. Officials in No. 10 meet with my team as well, every Thursday, and then we have a decision-making…”

“I am not going to mention individual staff members. I do not think that—”

“No. I have regular meetings with the Chief Whip and No. 10, because the three people who have to agree to a statement happening are me, the Chief Whip and the Prime Minister. I oversee that process and I communicate the outcome of that process; I receive the bids and manage that process. We notify the Speaker in the mo…”

“Yes, they are for the Speaker.”