Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Environment – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Ebrill 1979.
Mr Michael Heseltine
Shadow Secretary of State, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment
12:00,
4 Ebrill 1979
Does the Secretary of State understand that we regard his explanation of why his party is against the sale of council houses as nothing more than humbug? Does he understand that the only consequence of any scale of the doctrinal Opposition of the Labour Party to the sale of council houses is to deny to millions of British people the opportunity to share in the benefits that property ownership involves?
If people in the lower-value council houses do not want to buy their own homes, why was it so desirable for the Labour Party to give people in much the same value homes the opportunity to buy under the leasehold enfranchisement Act?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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".
