§ 56. Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked the Prime Minister whether the practice prescribed by the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman on the formation of his Administration in 1905 and hitherto rigidly observed, that the holding of a public company directorship is incompatible with membership of the Administration, is of binding obligation or liable to be broken by the heads of future Administrations; and, if the position is not one of legal but merely of moral obligation, will the Government consider the propriety of giving is a definite legal sanction by the introduction of legislation for that purpose?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI think the rule is a good one, but I do not see my way to introduce legislation to make it binding on future Administrations.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that in the late Government eleven Cabinet Ministers held seventeen directorships, and that fifteen Members of the Administration, amongst whom was the Leader of the Opposition, held twenty-five directorships between them?