HC Deb 26 November 1951 vol 494 cc873-4
46. Mr. Frederick Lee

asked the Prime Minister the duties of the leader of the United Kingdom delegation to the Council of Europe.

The Prime Minister

The duties of the head of the United Kingdom delegation at the forthcoming meeting of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe will be the same as at the previous meetings. He will seek to ensure that the activities of the United Kingdom delegation further the work of the Council of Europe.

Mr. Lee

While thanking the right hon. Gentleman for that reply, am I to take it that his announcement that there is a nominal head of the delegation implies that there will be no effort to bring the members of the various parties together to try to co-ordinate their policy in private as distinct from discussion in the public assembly?

The Prime Minister

That is a matter I might leave to our representatives.

Mr. Hugh Dalton

Has it not been the practice in the past for there to be a leader of the Labour members of the delegation and a leader of the Conservative members? Is it not a new development, and did the right hon. Gentleman himself when at Strasbourg follow the leadership in this sense of my right hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison), or of myself when I succeeded him?

The Prime Minister

I confined myself to the duties of the head of the delegation. I did not attempt to enter upon the question of how far those duties had been discharged by previous representatives.