§ Mr. MOSLEYasked the Minister of Labour the reason for the delay, from 10th November, 1926, to 29th January, 1927, in replying to a letter from the clerk to the Smethwick Borough Council informing him of the appointment of Councillor R. A. Baker as his council's representative on the local employment committee?
§ Mr. BETTERTONThe delay was due to the necessity for making certain inquiries before a final decision could be reached.
§ Mr. MOSLEYasked the Minister of Labour whether he has laid down a new rule that no person occupying the position of political agent shall be eligible for appointment to a local employment committee; whether he will give the date on which this rule was laid down; what are the reasons for this change of policy; and whether he will state specific instances where this discrimination has been exercised, together with particulars of the political parties to which the persons concerned are attached?
§ Mr. BETTERTONIt has always been the policy to keep the local employment committees as far as possible free from politics, and, owing to the activities in which a full-time political agent must be engaged, my right hon. Friend decided at the beginning of last year that a person occupying that position was not eligible for appointment as a member of a committee. I do not think I ought to publish the cases in which the point has arisen, but no distinction is drawn between one political party and another.