HC Deb 24 June 1953 vol 516 cc1903-4
45. Mr. Peart

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the Eighth Report from the Select Committee on Estimates, dated 20th May, 1953, he will reconsider his decision not to include the Minister of Education in the Cabinet.

Dr. King

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the position of school accommodation, he will revert to the practice of including the Minister of Education in the Cabinet.

Mr. Swingler

asked the Prime Minister whether, in the light of the Report of the Select Committee on Estimates on Schools, he will now reconsider the desirability of including the Minister of Education in his Cabinet.

Mr. Crookshank

I have been asked to reply to these and other Questions addressed to the Prime Minister today.

No, Sir. My right hon. Friend sees no reason to increase the size of the Cabinet in this way. The Minister of Education is always summoned when any matter affecting her Department is raised, and like other Ministers of Cabinet rank she can always ask to come for this purpose.

Mr. Peart

Will the Leader of the House convey to the Prime Minister the very widespread disquiet caused by the findings of this Report? Will he convey to him that there is an overwhelming opinion in the country which feels that he made a bad decision when he reduced the status of the Minister? Is it not about time that education had top priority? May I have an answer?

Mr. Crookshank

The Question which was addressed to the Prime Minister concerned the inclusion of the Minister of Education in the Cabinet, and that I have answered. The other questions are largely matters of opinion.

Dr. King

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is wrong to lay the blame on the Minister of Education for her failure to appreciate the gravity of the educational accommodation problem when directives on the educational building programme come from a Cabinet from which she is excluded? Will the right hon. Gentleman convey to the Prime Minister that the gravity of the situation warrants a change in view of the disastrous setback to education which was initiated by this decision?

Mr. Crookshank

I have no doubt that the Prime Minister will take note of these expressions of opinion by hon. Members, but his own position has been made quite clear in the answer which I have given.

Brigadier Peto

Is my right hon. Friend aware that although the Labour Administration included the Minister of Education in the Cabinet, that had little or no effect on the number of old schools in need of repair and renewal in October, 1951?

Mr. Crookshank

That, again, I think, is in accordance with the facts.

Mr. Swingler

Will the Leader of the House draw the Prime Minister's attention to the fact that there are 170 fewer schools under construction today than there were two years ago? Will he ask the Prime Minister whether it is not desirable to have the Minister of Education in the Cabinet, if only to challenge the phoney figures of educational building put out by the Minister of Housing and Local Government?

Mr. Shinwell

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that we are not so much concerned with increasing the size of the Cabinet as with improving its quality?

Mr. Nicholson

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the Eighth Report of the Committee on Estimates made no political charges or implications, so that if any are drawn the inference is that more blame is to be attached to the previous Administration than to the present Administration?