HC Deb 23 February 1960 vol 618 cc186-7
41. Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

asked the Prime Minister if he will procure an official residence for the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

The Prime Minister

Any such additional provision of official residences for Ministers would raise important considerations which seem to me to require a good deal of thought.

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that hundreds of colonial visitors and conferences come here annually from all quarters of the globe and that it is not right that my right hon. Friend the Colonial Secretary should be expected to entertain them in a relatively small flat with relatively little domestic help, or else in the cold splendour of Lancaster House?

The Prime Minister

As I say, official residences for Ministers in London are partly a matter of historical tradition, although I agree that recently, some ten years ago I think, an official flat was provided for the Foreign Secretary. But quite apart from this, the matter obviously requires thought, but unfortunately some of these houses—the houses and not the people occupying them, Nos. 10 and 11, Downing Street—are in a state of decay as well.

Mr. Lipton

Will the Prime Minister bear in mind that the provision of better working accommodation for hon. Members of this House is much more important than the provision of an official residence for the Secretary of State for the Colonies? As speed is the essence of the matter, will the right hon. Gentleman try to do something about that before he becomes Chancellor of Oxford University?

The Prime Minister

This is a large problem which can hardly be dealt with by me today by Question and Answer.

Mr. Creech Jones

May I ask the Prime Minister, if he is considering this problem at all, to recall that for the past 15 years at least some of us on this side of the House have been engaged in the liquidation of the British Colonial Empire and that if any official residence is called for, it should surely be for the Commonwealth Relations Department?

The Prime Minister

I do not know whether the process of gradual evolution towards self-government should properly be described as the liquidation of the Colonial Empire. I should have said it was moving on through progress to a position which had long been envisaged and always been our objective. About who is to live in what house, I should still like to reserve judgment.