§ Mr. SPEAKERI must request the hon. Member for Barrow-in-Furness to take his seat.
§ Mr. CHARLES DUNCAN (seated on the arm of the Front Bench below the Ministerial Gangway)I have just been out, and on my return I found that my hon. Friend had taken my seat.
§ Sir WILLIAM BYLESMay I say that I was here an hour ago?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIf the name of the hon. Member for Barrow-in-Furness was on the seat he is entitled to it, but if his card was not there he is not entitled to it.
§ Mr. CHARLES DUNCANMy name is not there, but I was here.
§ Sir WILLIAM BYLES(who occupied the seat): May I say that my card was here on the seat an hour ago, and I was at the door at the time for prayers. When I came in the card had been removed. It has happened many times, a great many times, and there is a very considerable struggle, though nothing unfriendly, for this seat.
§ Mr. SPEAKERI must remind the hon. Member that during the last few years those special seats have been, I will not say allotted to, but have been used by the Labour party. The hon. Member for Sal-ford does not, of course, belong to that party, and it is rather unusual that he should use that seat.
§ Sir W. BYLESSurely I may be allowed to say that there are several Radical Members who had possession of these seats long before the Labour party came, and they have retained them regularly. [HON. MEMBERS: "NO no."]
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is not so; those seats were on the other side of the House, and, since the Labour party came over in 1910, they have sat there.