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Lords Amendment: In page 1, line 15, at end insert:
and a resolution to that effect was agreed to by that House on the nineteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and fifty:
§ 3.51 p.m.
§ The Attorney-General (Sir Frank Soskice)I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."
1964 This Amendment would insert certain words which I think it is agreed on both sides of the House are rather important. In the Bill as it stands, the present wording might suggest that it was the opinion approved by the Privy Council which had the effect of making the Rev. Mr. Mac-Manaway's seat one for which he was disqualified. That is not the constitutional position and by inserting these words we seek to make the position clear.
§ Major Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Liverpool, West Derby)The predecessor of the right hon. and learned Gentleman undertook that he would consider the suggestion I put forward when the Bill was before the House, and I express my gratitude and that of my hon. Friends that the suggestion has been met by these words.
§ Professor Savory (Antrim, South)I am very glad that this Amendment has been inserted by the Lords and accepted because it shows clearly that as far as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was concerned, their decision was not necessarily imposed on this House but had to be adopted by this House. It is of supreme importance because it shows that Mr. MacManaway was, until the Resolution was accepted, entitled not merely to sit in this House but also to vote and therefore he was only exercising his legitimate rights when last September he voted in a critical Division.
§ Question put, and agreed to.
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Lords Amendment: In line 19, at the end to insert:
and the said James Godfrey MacManaway gave notice of resignation from the House of Commons of Northern Ireland as from the twenty-second day of January nineteen hundred and fifty-one:
§ The Attorney-GeneralI beg to move, "That the House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."
This Amendment is consequential on the last. It makes the same addition with regard to the Parliament of Northern Ireland as the words which were last inserted make with regard to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeI have nothing to add to what the right hon. Gentleman has said on the Amendment, but I understand that this is the first time that he has addressed the House in the capacity 1965 which he now adorns. I hope, therefore, he will allow me to offer the congratulations of the House to him in the office he now holds.
§ Question put, and agreed to.