HUGE MAJORITY IN FAVOUR

Southland Times, Issue 25328, 1 April 1944, Page 5

HUGE MAJORITY IN FAVOUR

Vote Of Confidence In Mr Churchill (8.0.W.) RUGBY, March 30. Mr Churchill received his vote of confidence from the House of Commons by a majority of 425 to 23 votes. His face, which has been set grimly'in the past two days, relaxed into a broad smile when the figures were .read out. A great outburst of cheering in the Commons from the Government supporters greeted the announcement. The only opposition voice came from the Labour benches where a member shouted “twenty-three honest men.” Cheers again broke out as Mr Churchill rose to leave; Conservative members stood up and waved their order papers. Mrs Cazalet Keir, mover of the original amendment, said: “Mr Churchill left no other possible course open to us than to support him in the vote of confidence. I am going to vote against the clause embodying my own amendment not because my views have changed on equal pay but because more vital matters have been superimposed upon it. Convention in this democracy of ours seems to have overruled commonsense. I believe in the clause but must vote against it to show my measureless confidence in Mr Churchill in the stupendous days ahead.” MOTION DEFEATED Earlier in the day the Commons had proceeded with discussions on the Government motion that Clause 82 of the Education Bill—the clause on which the Government was defeated on Tuesday— should be deleted from the Bill. Previously a motion by Mr Aneurin Bevan (Labour) to report progress, which would have enlarged the scope of the discussion by raising issues regarding Tuesday’s successful amendment, had been defeated by 378 votes to 43. If it had been successful Mr Bevan’s motion would have stultified Mr Churchill’s insistence on a vote of confidence. The president of the Board of Education, Mr R. A. Butler, explained that the Bill would not achieve the reform which the members supporting the amendment desired. It would upset the free negotiating machinery'of the Burnham Committee for determination of teachers’ salaries which had worked so successfully in the past 25 years. Mr Arthur- Greenwood said that although he felt that the general principle of equal pay for equal work as

between men and women should be discussed by the Commons he would ask the Labour Party to vote with him in support of Mr Butler. Mr Churchill then intervened and said that, because of a ruling from the chair regarding the extent of the discussion, he did not feel justified _ in presenting the argument respecting this particular measure and the significance attaching to it, Regarding the demand for the discussion of equal pay for men and women the position of the Government was that, until it had been revived and fortified by. a vote of confidence, it did not feel entitled to embark on promises for the future. Mr James Maxton (Independent Labour) said that the lesson of the week’s happenings was that the time to resume party government in the House was long overdue. He would vote against the Government. Mr Aneurin Bevan said that the debate had led to one good thingenormous publicity for the principle of equal pay. j Mr Beverley Baxter (Conservative) asked the Government to add dignity to 'the occasion by saying that it had been impressed by the amendment being carried and would consider it in Cabinet. The division was then taken. The Government’s next step will be to reinstate the clause as originally framed on the ’ report stage of the Education Bill and insist on its being passed without amendment as a matter of confidence.