– in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 30 Ionawr 1964.
Mr Arthur Lewis
, West Ham North
12:00,
30 Ionawr 1964
asked the Prime Minister why he will not introduce legislation to provide that the office of Prime Minister shall in future only be held by a person who has secured a Majority of votes in the House of Commons voting for that purpose.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
, Kinross and West Perthshire
I am against unnecessary legislation.
Mr Arthur Lewis
, West Ham North
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware—and I guess he is—that the present Prime Minister was not elected by any persons, either in this House or in the country, when he was appointed; and that some people doubt whether he even had the support of his hon. Friends? Surely, there should be some method whereby British democracy can work, and is not this a good way of seeing that it does so?
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
, Kinross and West Perthshire
I think that I dealt with that matter the day before yesterday.
Mr Gilbert Longden
, South West Hertfordshire
Is my right hon. Friend aware that most people are getting heartily sick of all the rubbish that is being spoken—[Interruption.]—and has been written about his selection as Prime Minister; and that most people believe that the process of that selection was as democratic, as dignified and as expeditious as the process employed by the party opposite in selecting its leader a year ago.
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.
