Member News
By Tony Grew - 21st October 2009
The Speaker has rejected a call for an investigation into press reports that a House of Commons computer was used to edit an entry on online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Denis McShane (Lab, Rotherham) raised the issue in a point of order after prime minister's questions this afternoon.
He told the Speaker that "an email (address) of this House used to alter a Wikipedia entry" for Michal Kaminski, the Polish MEP who leads the new group in the European Parliament set up by the Conservatives.
On Sunday the Observer reported:
"Details of Kaminski's previous membership of the far-right National Revival of Poland party had been mysteriously removed."
The changes were reportedly made in June, just days after the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group was formed.
"Alterations were made to the Wikipedia page on Edward McMillan-Scott, the Tory MEP who raised concerns about Kaminski, and was then expelled from the party," according to the Observer.
The paper said the changes were made from a House of Commons computer with an internet IP address name Strasburg.
McShane called on the Speaker to ask the House authorities to investigate and report back on who had made the changes to Wikipedia.
He was rebuffed by Speaker John Bercow, who replied with "all solemnity" that McShane had made "a point of debate" and not a point of order.
McShane has previously accused Kaminski of anti-Semitism.
"What is the adjective to use for a man who is accused of organising a campaign against the brave decision of the then Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski to apologise for the massacre of Jews at the hand of Polish villagers in 1941?" he wrote on his blog in July.
"Kaminski's more extreme utterances, like his handing out leaflets at Warsaw station urging Ukrainian immigrant workers to go home – a Polish jobs for Polish workers appeal – have continued into this century."
The Conservatives have rejected claims about the leader of the new Euro group, and claim he is being subjected to "unjustified and vicious smears".
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd