HC Deb 09 July 1953 vol 517 cc1482-3
45. Mr. Jay

asked the Prime Minister what steps he proposes to take to increase the number of Members of the House of Commons in the Cabinet.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. R. A. Butler)

This is not, I think, a matter on which my right hon. Friend would wish to satisfy the right hon. Gentleman's curiosity.

Mr. Jay

Has the Chancellor noticed that of the now functioning members of the Cabinet, over half are in the House of Lords? Is it deliberate Government policy to extend the power of the House of Lords over the Cabinet, or is the fact that the Prime Minister cannot find suitable candidates on the benches opposite?

Mr. Butler

I should have thought that the immense preponderance both of intelligence and Parliamentary success witnessed recently in this House would vindicate the situation as at present arranged by my right hon. Friend.

Mr. H. Morrison

While noting with regret that the right hon. Gentleman is reverting to his earlier style of Parliamentary evasion, is not it the case that when the Government was formed the preponderance of peers in the Government was excessive, and that owing to illness, which we all regret, is it not the case now that the responsible Cabinet is underrepresented—seriously underrepresented—in the deliberations of this House?

Mr. Butler

The right hon. Gentleman will realise that the accident of illness cannot, unfortunately, be helped. He will be gratified to hear that my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of Housing and Local Government are making very satisfactory progress towards recovery. All of us will be glad to hear that, and none of us can help illness—[HON. MEMBERS: "The Prime Minister?"] The Prime Minister also is doing very well. Apart from that, the total number of peers in this Government is 19, compared with 16 in the last Government, and I do not think that the discrepancy is so very great.

Mr. Attlee

The right hon. Gentleman is an adept at dealing with figures. He must remember that there were only three peers in the Cabinet in the former Administration, which is a very different thing from taking into account the Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms.

Mr. Butler

On the matter of figures I feel sure I should not need so much proficiency as the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Lewisham, South (Mr. H. Morrison) in his new post. But leaving that on one side, I have here a note to the effect that the number of peers was not only three, but went up to four at one time in the Labour Government.

Mr. Attlee

The right hon. Gentleman is correct with regard to, I think, the first year of the Labour Government. Thereafter the figure was three—certainly for the last two or three years.

Mr. Butler

That may well account for the decline in the prestige of the Labour Government.

Mr. Shinwell

As the right hon. Gentleman, in an earlier reply to a supplementary question by my right hon. Friend, referred to the Prime Minister and said he was getting along very well, will he tell us what is wrong with the Prime Minister? May we not now know? If the right hon. Gentleman informs the House that the Prime Minister is getting along very well, cannot he tell us what is wrong?

Mr. Butler

There is no mystery about the matter. A statement was made which said that the Prime Minister had to take at least a month's rest, and I am glad to say that the rest is doing the Prime Minister a great deal of good.