Mr Gordon Oakes: If I may refer to the remarks of the hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page), his argument would be attractive if there were a large number of cases of the kind which he has described. But surely the vast majority of genuine prospective purchasers who are doing a deal through a solicitor's office would not enter into a contract in the circumstances in which there was a tenant—
Mr Gordon Oakes: If they did enter a contract in the way in which the hon. Member suggested, they would be as bad as the landlord who was trying to evict the tenant. To cater for the very few cases that may be involved, it opens the floodgates, because it could well happen that a company would sell to one of its directors a fraudulent contract bearing a date that had been inserted later, a document that had...
Mr Gordon Oakes: I rise with some trepidation because, like my hon. Friend the Member for Epping (Mr. Newens) and the hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Patrick Jenkin), this is the first occasion on which I have had the privilege of addressing this House. If I err, I beg that you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, and the House will forgive any mistakes I make. One mistake I thought I might make was that of being...