THE House of Commons authorities will block any attempt this morning by Sinn Fein's two MPs, Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness, to surmount the Speaker's ban on passes and access to facilities.
The question is whether they will be escorted into the Commons to have the new rules explained to them or if the event will be outside in front of the television cameras.
Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness are expected to challenge "as strongly as possible" the decision of the Speaker, Ms Betty Boothroyd, to ban the two MPs from using the facilities at Westminster unless they take their seats. This would mean swearing an oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, banned under Sinn Fein's rules. However, the procedural change does not come into force until the end of debate on the Queen's speech. Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness will attempt to exploit the loophole by demanding their Commons passes.
A third option open to the two MPs is to be invited inside the Commons by a sitting MP. Moves to help them to gain access to the Commons have been denied by the Labour MP, Mr Tony Benn, who advised Sinn Fein last week on how the oath of allegiance might be circumvented to allow them to speak in the Commons during the election of the Speaker. Mr Benn said: "I am not involved directly."