HC Deb 13 November 1928 vol 222 cc692-4
Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCE

I desire to ask a question regarding the seats for strangers under the Strangers Gallery. I have always understood that those seats are, in the first instance, available for the technical advisers of Members of the Opposition. I asked recently for a seat for someone, and I was told that I could not have the ticket because the person for whom I desired the seat was a woman. Seeing that women are now eligible, with men, to sit as Members on the Floor of the House of Commons, and considering that they are also brought into the seats reserved in the Gallery on your right for technical advisers of the Government, can you not see your way to remove the ban on women in regard to seats under the Strangers' Gallery?

Mr. SPEAKER

The seats under the Gallery to which the hon. Member refers are not open entirely to what I may call assistants for the Opposition; that is to say, for secretaries and others belonging to the Opposition. It is true that they are entitled to two seats under that Gallery under the existing arrangement. I ought to say, in the first place, that the Regulations governing the admission of strangers to this House are a matter not for me, but for the House itself to decide. Therefore, I cannot give any definite ruling, one way or the other, on a question of this kind. Under the existing Regulations, in the Ladies' Gallery, as it is now, there is far more accommodation for ladies than there are places in the special gallery and in the under-galleries which are reserved entirely for men. Whether the time will ever come when all the sex distinctions as regards the admission of strangers to this House will be done away with, I do not know, but in my judgment the time has not arrived for making any change in the existing Regulations.

Mr. PETHICK-LAWRENCE

With deference, may I say that to some extent it is a question of convenience for hon. Members in the matter of having technical advisers in the seats reserved for strangers under the Gallery, and may I ask you whether, in view of any strong feelings on the part of Members of the House, you would be willing to modify your opinion?

Mr. SPEAKER

As I have said, the matter is entirely one for the House itself. It is not a matter for me. If a large majority of the House desired any change I should, of course, fall in with the view of the House.

Miss WILKINSON

In view of your statement that this is a matter for the House itself, may I ask for your direction as to what steps an hon. Member should take who desires to bring forward not only this question of the seats in the under-galleries, but various other disabilities from which women are still suffering in this House. There is the refusal to allow women in the Strangers' Dining Room. This is a very real grievance not only to women Members, but also to men Members of the House who desire to entertain women business guests and do not wish to pay the high prices in the other dining room, May I ask what steps we should take in order to sweep away all these disabilities before the next General Election brings in a far larger number of women Members?

Mr. SPEAKER

If the hon. Member will give me notice of that question, I will give her an answer another day.

Mr. MACKINDER

You have said, Mr. Speaker, that Members of the Opposition are not allowed to bring women advisers into the seats under the gallery; may I ask if you have to give your permission for lady advisers to sit in the Under Galleries on the Government side before they are allowed to enter?

Mr. SPEAKER

All the rules and regulations governing the admission of strangers have been made by the House itself, not by the Speaker.