ADJOURNMENT (SUMMER). (Hansard, 28 July 1933)

§ Mr. TINKER
I would like to make one or two comments before this Motion is put to the House. I want to draw the attention of the Lord President of the Council to the wording of the Motion which states— provided that if it is represented to Mr. Speaker by His Majesty's Government that the public interest requires that the House should meet at any earlier time during the Adjournment, and Mr. Speaker is satisfied "— then the Speaker can call the House together. What I would like the Lord President of the Council to bear in mind for the next occasion is the question of giving Members of the House of Commons the same opportunity as the Government are being given now. If something arises in the country which attracts attention, and 40 or 50 Members send in their names to the Speaker to say that they think Parliament ought to be called together, I think the Speaker ought to be empowered to take cognisance of that application. I do not think it is altogether fair that the Government of the day should have the absolute power of calling Parliament together. Ordinary Members have some rights in this matter. Although I am not going 2965 to oppose this Motion to-day, I would ask the Lord President to put my view before the Prime Minister, and that it may be conveyed to him that Members of the House of Commons ought to have some voice in the work of the country during the Recess.

§ The LORD PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL (Mr. Baldwin)
This is a point which has been raised before, but, after all, it is a responsibility of the Government's, and a responsibility which they cannot delegate. The Government would be more anxious than anyone to call the House together if there were a national need for it. While it sounds a very simple thing to do as the hon. Member suggests, I am convinced that in practice it would be very difficult. This matter has, of course, been considered over and over again by Governments. If there were a very powerful Opposition it would be quite easy for them to get the House called together merely to prevent the Members of the Government or the Members of the House having any holiday, and thus causing trouble for the Government; and, in any case, if it were open to any section of the House to approach Mr. Speaker with a view to calling the House together that, it seems to me—and I say this entirely on my own responsibility—would put the Speaker in a most invidious position. The responsibility for calling the House together ought not to be the Speaker's. He has sufficient responsibility in guiding our debates when we meet, and in practice, and for every reason I have been able to see, the Government of the day must accept the full responsibility for the time at which they should call the House together.

§ Mr. C. WILLIAMS
Is there not also one other very great danger, which might create great difficulties for private Members? If, say, 50 Members could be approached by some outside body—I will not mention any names—it would mean that pressure could be brought to bear on groups of private Members to send in a resolution of this kind, and it would be quite easy for influential outside bodies continually to exercise that kind of pressure on private Members which we sometimes have in postcard campaigns. From that point of view it would be very 2966 inadvisable that the responsibility which belongs to the Government should be taken from them and put on someone else's shoulders. I think that is a point which is worth considering, because some of us as private Members do know that very considerable pressure is put upon us, and to accept the hon. Member's suggestion would open the way to further abuses of that kind. Such pressure does not as a rule come directly from our own constituents, who, after all, are the authority who ought to deal with our views.