Crisis Continues With Party Chiefs’ Resignations

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30269, 23 October 1963, Page 13

Crisis Continues With Party Chiefs’ Resignations

(N Z .A .-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, October 22. Britain’s new Prime Minister (Lord Home) today presided over the first meeting of his 23-member Cabinet. He will probably announce today a series of minor Government appointments, possibly completing the 40 or so vacancies still outetand* ing, which include Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and Minister of State at the Home Office. The Conservative crisis continued yesterday with the resignation of the party’s joint chairmen, Lord Poole and Mr lain Macleod, and Lord Aldington, who was their personal assistant. All three disapprove of the way Lord Home was appointed Prime Minister.

1 he resignation of Mr Macleod, the former Leader of the House of Commons, from his party job, followed his refusal to join Lord Home’s Cabinet. In place of the two chairiren the partv appointed one, —Mr John Hare, aged 52. who is Chancellor of the I I> iehy of Lancaster, a non- i departmental portfolio in the new administration. The' Queen is to make Mr Hare a < v.scount. Mr Hare will take on thei party post, with Conserva- • ve electoral stock at a low ebb less than 12 months before a General Election. Political sources said he faced a f -rmidabie task. Ministers Appointed Yesterday Lord Home cont.nued filling out his new administration by naming 16 • middle - rung” m misters, among them Mr Maurice Macmllan, the 42-year-old ton of the former Prime M nister. Mr Macmillan gets his first Government job as Economic Secretary to the Treasury—a key post in which he will act in effect as ass'Starvt to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Ma ladling). Lord Home named Earl Jellicoe, aged 45, First Lord of the Admiralty, in place of Lord Carrington, who was yesterday appointed Mr Butler's Deputy Foreign Secre-

Lcrd Home also hopes to meet Mr Harold Wilson, the Leader of the Opposition, today He is expected to make clear to Mr Wilson that—with

or without his agreement—he pr-oposes to advise the Queen that the opening of the new session of Parliament be post-pc-ned.

The new session is due to begin on October 29, but Lord Home is believed to feel it should be delayed until he has fought for and won a seat in the House of Commons

lord Home is to give up his titles and stand in the Kinross and West Perthshire by-election. where electors will go to the polls on November 7. The probable

date for the opening of the new session is now November 12. Lord Home’s plan therefore involves a delay of about a fortnight a proposal already dismissed by Mr Wilson as "an impertinence” The move does not have to have Mr Wilson's agreement, as the timing is at the discretion of the Queen, who acts on the advice of her Ministers. But it may well plunge Lord Home into a big poetical clash with the Labour Party at the start of a session which is to include a debate on the Denning report on the Profumo affair. Lord Heme said last night i that he did not think it was true to say he did not have enough knowledge about

domestic affairs in general to be a good Prime Minister. He was answering questions in a television interview. He referred to his previous domestic affairs experience as member of Parliament for a Scottish constituency before succeeding to his peerage, and as Minister of State for Scotland. “So really I have got to rub up my knowledge a little,” Lord Home said. "In the last few years I have been covering overseas affairs and have not meddled with other ministers' affairs.” Asked about the events leading up to his becoming Prime Minister, he said he had never sought the office. "But when it came to me and so many people asked me if

I would do it —in my own party of course—l said ‘yes, because I felt it was my duty to do so.’” Lord Home was asked how he would face the opposition of the Labour leader (Mr Harold Wilson). He said: “Let’s take the by-election first. Before we fight a General Election I have got to fight a by-election pretty soon. Fourteenth Earl "But as far as the fourteenth Earl is concerned suppose Mr Wilson, when you come to think of it, is the fourteenth Mr Wilson. I don’t really see why criticism should centre on this. “And if all men are equal, well that's a very good doctrine." Lord Home said. "But are we to say all men are equal except peers? And that nobody can come and be Prime Minister because he ■happens to be an earl?” Asked about South Africa’s racial policies, Lord Home said:' "Public pressure, yes. But I draw the line at economic sanctions. I think that is absolutely wrong and it is absolutely wrong for the United Nations to get involved in them.” Satirist as Opponent

A satirist, Mr William Rushton, announced last night that he planned to stand against Lord Home in the byelection. Mr Rushton is known for his lampooning of politicians, including Mr Macmillan, in satirical television programmes and magazines. Mr Rushton claimed Lord Home had been appointed "in the face of normal processes of democracy and indeed the customary processes of the Conservative Party.” Lord Home’s other three opponents at the by-election represent the Labour, Liberal, and Scottish Nationalist Parties.