Speeches by Williamson.

“Obviously, performance has improved, which is to be very welcomed. Do you think the last Foreign Secretary just did not take it that seriously?”

“The Foreign Office lied to me when I put down written parliamentary questions on Lord Mandelson; the answers have transpired to be completely untrue. Do you take seriously the fact that you as Ministers have given false representation in those answers?”

“Out of curiosity, in your weekly prayers meetings as Ministers, when was the issue of the Department’s performance in answering parliamentary questions last discussed?”

“Oh, that’s right—you cannot whip in your party.”

“This was prior to that; it was this time last year.”

“No. In a case in which the FCDO gave a deep inaccuracy in response to a written parliamentary question relating to Peter Mandelson, what action would be taken by the Department to correct that?”

“First, congratulations on making strides and improvements going forward. It is interesting that you have had an increase in the number of questions. That is not uncommon; we have seen that across other Departments. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has had a similar sort of increase, but they are getting …”

“But I’ve got—”

“What you say is very interesting. Remind me: does the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ever announce any policy or do press releases during recess?”

“You raise a very important point. I appreciate that it has been a long time since I was a Minister, but my recollection is that there is sometimes an element of relief when you get to recess. You do not have an overbearing Whips Office demanding your attendance; you do not have to go to any UQs, statements or, God forb…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson), on securing this debate. As one of probably a few Members of Parliament who have worked in the ceramics industry, this is not just about jobs for me; it is about who …”

“You have touched on the issue of “I refer” answers. People often put in similar questions because they feel the response from the FCDO is inadequate; it is usually done not to create work but to get an answer that they feel you have failed to give. People have said they feel as though the FCDO does not give a quality o…”

“Will the Minister give way on that point?”

“Do you feel uncomfortable as a Minister that things that ended up being proven to be absolutely untrue were stated in answers to written parliamentary questions from Members of Parliament in relation to Lord Mandelson? Do you feel you got dragged into the cover-up?”

“The Minister has heard quite clearly from Members on both sides of the House the real concern about what was said at the Dispatch Box about those who had committed the most serious and heinous crimes not actually being released under this scheme. That is where the biggest dispute is in relation to this. Could the Minis…”

“I just got very excited about the innovation that you were proposing on the PQ side of things. What if you were given a bit of freedom? On some days, business falls short—we could have a long debate about whether the Backbench Business Committee properly programmes things as well as it should do, but we had best not tr…”

“Where are they now?”

“Sorry, I meant when they come to the Committee.”

“It is a reported basis, isn’t it?”

“The Leader of the House makes an interesting point, but he also knows that I could put in an FOI request on the cat flap. You cannot really have a situation where there is a disparity. A Member should be able to establish that; otherwise, you are saying that Members should be less equal in their access to information.”