In 1957, John Junor, the editor of the Sunday Express, appeared before MPs to be admonished for publishing an article deemed to be in contempt of Parliament. It concerned the allocation of petrol during a period of rationing and suggested that politicians were getting more than their fair share. Sir John, as he later became, stood before the bar of the House and expressed his “sincere apologies” for impugning the honour and integrity of MPs but added that the article concerned matters that were “a proper and, indeed, inescapable subject of comment in a free Press”. While he was found guilty of serious contempt, the matter went no further after his apology.
The episode was seen as an embarrassment for the Commons in seeking to curtail free comment and has never been repeated until now. While the editor of the Mail on Sunday has not been hauled into the Commons chamber, he is resisting a summons from the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to a meeting to discuss an article about Angela Rayner’s legs. While the subject seems to be less serious than the alleged misuse of petrol allowances, in the eyes of MPs today it is more so. It was even raised by Sir Keir Starmer in his opening remarks for what were the last PMQs of the current session of Parliament.
He denounced misogyny and Boris Johnson again expressed his sympathy for Ms Rayner. It has been asserted that all political and journalistic discourse should be “kind”, whereas this is not tenable in either forum. Whatever the view of the story, which was a report of what unnamed MPs had told the newspaper, it is no more acceptable now for politicians to summon editors for a dressing down than it was in 1957.
In 1957, John Junor, the editor of the Sunday Express, appeared before MPs to be admonished for publishing an article deemed to be in contempt of Parliament. It concerned the allocation of petrol during a period of rationing and suggested that politicians were getting more than their fair share. Sir John, as he later became, stood before the bar of the House and expressed his “sincere apologies” for impugning the honour and integrity of MPs but added that the article concerned matters that were “a proper and, indeed, inescapable subject of comment in a free Press”. While he was found guilty of serious contempt, the matter went no further after his apology.
The episode was seen as an embarrassment for the Commons in seeking to curtail free comment and has never been repeated until now. While the editor of the Mail on Sunday has not been hauled into the Commons chamber, he is resisting a summons from the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to a meeting to discuss an article about Angela Rayner’s legs. While the subject seems to be less serious than the alleged misuse of petrol allowances, in the eyes of MPs today it is more so. It was even raised by Sir Keir Starmer in his opening remarks for what were the last PMQs of the current session of Parliament.
He denounced misogyny and Boris Johnson again expressed his sympathy for Ms Rayner. It has been asserted that all political and journalistic discourse should be “kind”, whereas this is not tenable in either forum. Whatever the view of the story, which was a report of what unnamed MPs had told the newspaper, it is no more acceptable now for politicians to summon editors for a dressing down than it was in 1957.