HC Deb 15 March 1965 vol 708 cc858-60
4. Mr. Shinwell

asked the Minister of Public Building and Works what progress he has made in his discussions on Parliamentary control of the House of Commons.

23. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Minister of Public Building and Works if he will now make a statement on the Parliamentary control of the Palace of Westminster.

Mr. C. Pannell

I am sorry but I cannot add anything to the reply given by the Prime Minister on 11th March to my hon. Friend the Member for Fife, West (Mr. William Hamilton).

Mr. Shinwell

In view of my right hon. Friend's advocacy of this change for the last 15 years, is it not about time that he swept this stupid anachronism under the carpet? Can he say when we are going to have a definite pronouncement?

Mr. Pannell

My right hon. Friend would not expect me, standing here at the Dispatch Box, to go further than my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister was prepared to go last Thursday. I would only quote, in that context, some lines that occur to me from Louis Untermeyer's "Prayer": From compromise and things half done Keep me with stern and stubborn pride. By which I mean that I hope that the settlement, when it comes, will please my right hon. Friend.

Mr. Hamilton

I hope, for my right hon. Friend's sake, that it does. Does he recognise that we have been pressing this for a very long time, I think with his support? Can he tell us precisely what is holding this settlement up? Is it because the Government are determined to get a solution which will satisfy this side, or is it because they are trying to get something which will mollify the other side?

Mr. Pannell

I can only say to my hon. Friend that while some people may have been waiting for this for 15 years I have been working for it for 15 years, and I am only too glad that so many people on both sides have caught up.

Mr. Robert Cooke

Will the Minister bear in mind that improved facilities for hon. Members are of much more value than constitutional upheavals of one kind or another? Will he continue the good work of his predecessor in this connection and lay off the Lord Great Chamberlain?

Mr. Pannell

Without going into the larger arguments involved, this is the only legislature in the Commonwealth which does not have complete command over its own accommodation. I should have thought that everything proved—and this has been proved in all parts of the word—that, apart from economic advantages, self-respect is the first consideration.

Sir A. V. Harvey

In so far as the Questions have been concerned with the House of Commons, is the right hon. Gentleman consulting the different parties in the House to get a broad section of opinion?

Mr. Pannell

As is well known on the Front Bench, there has been full consultation through the usual channels. There is nothing I know, standing at the Dispatch Box, which is not known by the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition.