A war of words over questions to Ministers in the House of Assembly went into overtime yesterday.

Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon accused Finance Minister Eugene Cox of misleading the public in a row over unanswered questions on Government spending.

Ms Gordon said: "The Finance Minister is being less than honest about this -- Government seems to have a tendency to rewrite history, but the tape tells the tale.

"It's just offensive when we have somebody of Mr. Cox's calibre being misleading like that.'' Ms Gordon hit out after Mr. Cox claimed the Opposition failed to get verbal supplementary follow-ups to written questions about the $120,000-plus bill for a Government trip to the UK Labour Party conference in England in October.

Opposition figures claimed Government had last Friday deliberately talked out the one hour given to congratulations, obituaries and questions in a bid to avoid embarrassment over spending.

And Ms Gordon called for changes to House rules to allow for a special period set aside for a UK-style question time.

But Mr. Cox insisted the Opposition had been the victim of their own "poor strategy'' and that United Bermuda MPs had hogged the congratulations and obituaries section, leaving no time for further answers.

Ms Gordon, however, said she had obtained a tape of last Friday's proceedings, which showed a total of five UBP MPs had called for letters of congratulation or condolence to be sent, taking up a total of 11 minutes.

But she added that the governing Progressive Labour Party had had 15 speakers who took up a half hour of the one-hour slot.

When opening prayers and Ministerial statements were added on, the hour was filled up.

Ms Gordon said: "At that time, Mr. Cox got up and said it's now past question time because it's 11 a.m.'' She added that Mr. Cox had also been wrong over the 15 minutes he said was allotted to Prime Minister's Question Time in Britain's House of Commons.

And she pointed out that -- unlike Bermuda where any Minister can be questioned during the hour-long period -- UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was on his own during his Question Time.

Ms Gordon said: "Prime Minister's Question Time is 30 minutes -- every Wednesday -- and only the Prime Minister can answer between 3 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. That is consistent and it's every week.'' And she added: "That's what the facts are -- and I got the tape of last Friday's session to prove it.'' The written answers to questions by Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons revealed a $24,300-a-day bill for the attendance of the Premier, seven other MPs and civil servants plus UK public relations staff at the Bournemouth Labour Party conference -- including a Bermuda booth in the conference arena which cost nearly $23,700.

Government insisted the trip was worth the effort to cement relations with the UK and lobby top figures on Bermuda-related issues.

But Dr. Gibbons accused the PLP of "subsidising'' UK Labour at the taxpayers' expense -- and questioned whether Government felt it had to buy influence with Britain's ruling party.

Tape tale: Pamela Gordon