– in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 28 Ionawr 1964.
Mr Emrys Hughes
, South Ayrshire
12:00,
28 Ionawr 1964
asked the Prime Minister if he will introduce legislation to provide that in future the Prime Minister shall assume office only after being elected by the House of Commons.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
, Kinross and West Perthshire
I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for West Ham, North (Mr. A. Lewis) on 23rd January.
Mr Emrys Hughes
, South Ayrshire
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is a considerable body of public opinion in the country which thinks that there should be a different method of electing the Prime Minister and that there is an impression that he became Prime Minister as a result of getting the Majority of spoiled votes? Does the right hon. Gentleman not also agree that this method lays too much of a burden on the Queen?
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
, Kinross and West Perthshire
I anticipated that the hon. Gentleman might be a little worried about my election. I do not think that I can put right what happened in the past, but very soon I shall be re-elected by the whole nation.
Mr Cyril Osborne
, Louth Borough
Would my right hon. Friend not agree that the Opposition are worried about his appointment because he has become such a good opponent?
Sir Harry Hylton-Foster
, Cities of London and Westminster
Order. It is not one of the duties of the Prime Minister of the day to rule on the reasons for alleged anxiety among the Opposition. Therefore, the question is out of order.
Mr Emrys Hughes
, South Ayrshire
In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the right hon. Gentleman's reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise this matter on the Adjournment.
The House of Commons is one of the houses of parliament. Here, elected MPs (elected by the "commons", i.e. the people) debate. In modern times, nearly all power resides in this house. In the commons are 650 MPs, as well as a speaker and three deputy speakers.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
