INSIDE PARLIAMENT: MP walks out after Archer jibe

The Labour backbencher Dale Campbell-Savours walked out of the Commons yesterday rather than bow to an order to withdraw an accusation that Lord Archer, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, had engaged in "criminal activity".

Mr Campbell-Savours, MP for Workington, levelled the charge, arising out of the millionaire author's dealing in Anglia TV shares, at Prime Minister's Question Time but was blocked by the Speaker, Betty Boothroyd. During acrimonious exchanges, Miss Boothroyd also censured David Shaw, the MP for Dover, as he and other Tory backbenchers goaded Tony Blair.

Mr Campbell-Savours' offence, however, was the more serious. To mounting protests, he said it was now six months since the Sunday Times exposed "the illegal activities of the so-called Lord Archer, Conservative peer, insider dealing activities in Anglia shares ... As it is quite clear that it is utterly impossible to successfully prosecute what we all know to be criminal activity, is there now going to be a review of the law?" Intervening, Miss Boothroyd asked the MP to withdraw the last part of his question. Amid uproar, Mr Campbell-Savours replied: "I referred to what many believe to be criminal activities. In my view it is unacceptable activity." But the Speaker said such remarks could only be made in a substantive motion. The Co mmons rule book forbids "reflections" on the conduct of MPs and peers.

"I am asking him to rephrase what he has just said, otherwise I must ask him to leave the House for the remainder of this day's session," she said.

Rising again, Mr Campbell-Savours said: "I believe it is criminal activity and I will leave." Shaking his head, he walked from the chamber.

A Department of Trade inquiry was carried out last year into allegations that Lord Archer profited from the purchase of Anglia TV shares shortly before a takeover bid, while his wife was an Anglia director.

Miss Boothroyd later condemned remarks by John Sykes, Conservative MP for Scarborough, who claimed some Opposition MPs with legitimate business interests had been prevented from registering them by the "Labour Party gestapo".

Ann Taylor, shadow Leader of the Commons, urged the Speaker to ask Mr Sykes to withdraw the remarks and apologise or report his evidence to the Registrar of Members' Interests. Miss Boothroyd promised to take up the request.

With nest-feathering back on the agenda, Mr Blair lighted on the remark by Peter Lilley that the salaries of junior ministers, at £47,987 a year, were so low that MPs with families could not afford to take them on.

"What does it tell us about Mr Major's government that the Secretary of State for Social Security says that ministers should be paid more, that backbench MPs should have more directorships and consultancies when at the self-same time he is introducing a law that will savage mortgage protection for the unemployed?"

The Prime Minister replied: "Mr Blair is taking a very puritanical view, in view of the number of special interests so many of his Labour colleagues have, including a number of his colleagues on the front bench." "And his wife," shouted Tory backbenchers. Mr Major added that there was a proper procedure for setting the salaries of ministers and MPs. "Mr Lilley is entirely happy with that."

Switching to the second barrel of his question, Mr Blair attacked Government plans to cut mortgage interest relief for people on income support when homeowners were facing rising interest rates and cuts in mortgage tax relief. "Won't the Prime Minister and his party understand that we will never build a strong and prosperous Britain by deliberately passing laws designed to make our people weak and insecure?"

MPs went on to debate a Labour motion calling on the Government to withdraw the cuts in mortgage assistance. Currently, mortgage holders qualifying for income support get 50 per cent of their interest paid for the first 16 weeks and the full amount thereafter.

But Donald Dewar, Labour's social security spokesman, said the new proposals would mean that from October new mortgage holders would be in a "help-free zone'' for nine months. Only then would interest be paid if they qualified for benefit.

Existing mortgage holders will get no help for two months and then only 50 per cent for the following four months, and the ceiling on the mortgages qualifying for help will be reduced from £125,000 to £100,000.

Mr Dewar said insurance cover could add between £200 and £300 a year to the annual cost of a home. A large number of people would not take out cover and result would be more repossessions.

But Mr Lilley argued that private insurance, at a cost of £12 a month on the average mortgage, would help reduce repossessions. There was "no logic" which said that the cost of mortgage protection should always be borne by the taxpayer.

Nicholas Winterton, Conservative MP for Macclesfield, warned he could not support the Government on mortgage support. It was "yet another nail in the coffin" of the the property-owning democracy.

Despite Mr Winterton's abstention, the Government comfortably defeated the Labour motion by 277 votes to 242.

Agriculture Questions brought reassurance from the minister, William Waldegrave, that the European tide is turning against veal crates and warning that demonstrators are frightening to death some of the animals bound for export. "Animals in lorries surrounded by the uproar of demonstrations are suffering ... often being put down there and then." A junior minister Angela Browning seemed more enthusiastic about eating Yorkshire rhubarb. Warming to a plea by Derek Enright, Labour MP for Hemsworth, Mrs Browning said that as a former cookery teacher she could certainly support demonstrations of rhubarb crumble and fruit compote which would restore the fortunes of this "most traditional British food".