CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

LEADER OF THE HOUSE – VOTE ON THE REPORT BY THE PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE - 19 June 2023

LEADER OF THE HOUSE – VOTE ON THE REPORT BY THE PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE - 19 June 2023

Sir Julian Lewis rose

[Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg: I will not give way. ...]

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Sir Julian Lewis: My hon. Friend is, indeed, a true friend and, normally, we find ourselves in the same Lobby under heavy crossfire, but I want to ask him a simple question that I would have asked my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg) had he found time to give way to me. Given that he is so hostile to the report of the Committee, will he do people like me a favour and divide the House today, so that we can have the opportunity to cast our vote, either against the report, as he wishes to do, or in favour of it, as I wish to do?

[Sir William Cash: My right hon. Friend is a very good friend of mine – he really is – as indeed of some Members on the other side of the House. I would simply like to say this. I am not in control of whether there is going to be an amendment. [Interruption.] No, I am making the point that, as far as I am concerned, there is an issue here that is being debated. Many people are absenting themselves for what they believe to be very good reasons. I am simply taking the view that somebody may decide that they are going to divide the House and I am leaving that as an open question for the time being. However, the statements made by Boris Johnson on the Floor of the House –]