Commons Speaker rebukes SNP MP over Twitter post

Sir Lindsay Hoyle called on Ochil and South Perthshire MP John Nicolson to apologise.

SNP MP John Nicolson was rebuked by Sir Lindsay Hoyle for sharing the Commons Speaker’s correspondence on Twitter (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Archive)

Sir Lindsay Hoyle has rebuked an SNP MP who shared the Commons Speaker’s correspondence on social media platform Twitter.

Sir Lindsay called on Ochil and South Perthshire MP John Nicolson to apologise for posting part of his letter relating to a decision on referring Conservative former culture secretary Nadine Dorries to the Privileges Committee.

Making a statement in the chamber following PMQs, the Speaker said: “(He) has seen fit to give a partial and biased account of my letter on Twitter and I await his apology… It is not the way we should be doing business in this House.”

Responding, Mr Nicolson said: “I want to put on record that I deplore social media pile-ons against you or indeed anyone else. I’ve been on the receiving end of them and they’re exceedingly unpleasant.

“But could I ask for guidance on what I and other members should tell their constituents about integrity in politics in this context? If someone misleads a committee, what should happen next?”

Printing the letter but only half the letter is not integrity

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle

Sir Lindsay replied: “Printing the letter but only half the letter is not integrity – in fact, far from it.

“It misled the people of this country, it certainly put me in a bad light with the people of this country, and I don’t expect that to happen – an impartial Speaker – so if that was an apology I don’t think it was very good.”

Intervening, Conservative former Cabinet minister David Davis said: “There is a duty of upholding the institutions of this House. Clearly, in breaching the confidentiality of the Speaker’s private correspondence, the MP for Ochil and South Perthshire has knowingly broken that rule and… if that was an apology, that was not sufficient.”

He claimed: “You (Speaker) were simply following the conventions of agreeing with the DCMS Select Committee of which he (Mr Nicolson) is a member. When they decided not to refer, there was no minority report from him, there was not even a vote against from him.

“It was a unanimous vote so what he was trying to do was to blame you by his partial release of this letter and he was leading the public to believe that somehow you made this decision against the wishes of the committee.”