TORY ministers have been blasted by the Speaker for failing to answer questions over opinion poll spending connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said it was “totally unacceptable” for the Government to not supply details to MPs.
Former cabinet minister David Davis raised a point of order this afternoon, telling the House of Commons: “This Government spends more money on polling and focus groups than any government in history.
“There may be good reason for that but for the last year they have resisted adamantly all Freedom of Information requests about that subject.”
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Davis said he'd submitted five written parliamentary questions to the Cabinet Office about polling linked to the pandemic.
“Not one of them was answered on time, not one of them has been answered yet," he said.
Davis added that other departments failed to respond to “named day questions”, in which an MP sets a date for an answer to be given.
Hoyle, in his reply, said: “It is totally unacceptable. We’re elected by our constituents, our constituents expect a service and that service is being denied by ministerial departments.
“It is not acceptable, we will continue to take it up.
“What I would say to secretaries of states, I wouldn’t like to cross [Mr Davis] as I know this won’t be the end of it.”
He added: “I am dissatisfied. The message needs to go to the heart of government: Take MPs seriously from all sides, they deserve the service, so do their constituents, it’s not acceptable.”
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