Lord Leathers's Position Defined
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE Prime Minister clarified the position concerning the accountability to Parliament of the co-ordinating Ministers in the House of Commons last week, making reference to Lord Leathers, Secretary of State for Co-ordination of Transport, Fuel and Power. Mr. Churchill said that the co-ordinating Ministers had no statutory powers and performed no formal acts. Their activities did not impair the responsibility to Parliament of the departmental Ministers whose policies they co-ordinated.
Co-ordinating Ministers had no power to give .orders to a departmental Minister. "A departmental Minister who is invited by a co-ordinating Minister to adjust a departmental policy to accord with the wider interests of the Government as a whole always has access to the Cabinet," said Mr. Churchill. 'No departmental Minister can, of course, be expected to remain in a government and carry out policies with which he disagrees," he added.
Following the resignation, because of ill-health, of Mr. J. S. Maclay, Mr. Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd becomes Minister of Transport, vacating the position of Minister of State (Colonial Affairs).
in last year's General Election, Mr. Lennox-Boyd, who is 47, held hia seat at Mid-Fledfordshire with a reduced majority.