Points of Order

Seamus Logan Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Seamus Logan (Aberdeenshire North and Moray East) (SNP)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On two separate occasions in July and September, the former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed), made some very dubious claims from the Dispatch Box about water quality in Scotland, which were repeated in writing to a Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Government, on social media and in broadcast interviews. I wrote to the Office for National Statistics to seek clarification. It has confirmed that the statements lack verifiable transparency and that the broad evidence does not support them, saying that:

“without appropriate discussion of the limitations of some of the more specific figures quoted”,

they run the risk of “misleading the public”.

I believe this to be a clear breach of public trust by a Minister and a Government who have staked their reputation on restoring trust in politics. I therefore ask you, Madam Deputy Speaker, whether it is in order for the former DEFRA Secretary repeatedly to make clearly misleading statements in this place that are not supported by the facts, as demonstrated by the ONS, and whether you will call the right hon. Member to this House to apologise.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I thank the hon. Member for his point of order. The Chair is not responsible for what Ministers say or the way in which they use data, but the hon. Member’s point of order is on the record. Those on the Government Front Bench will have heard his concerns, and, if a correction is necessary, I am sure one will be forthcoming. I gently remind the hon. Member that I am sure he meant to say “inadvertently” misleading.