– in the House of Commons at on 1 July 1935.
Mr John Tinker
, Leigh
asked the Prime Minister whether he is in a position to say what the salaries of the Cabinet Ministers, known as Ministers without Portfolio, will be; and can he say the length of time he intends to keep on with these extra Cabinet positions?
Mr Stanley Baldwin
, Bewdley
The salaries of the Ministers without Portfolio will be £3,000. These appointments will continue so long as the work of the Government requires them.
Mr John Tinker
, Leigh
Is the right hon. Gentleman not of opinion that a matter of this kind should have been discussed with the House first of all, because when an under-secretary is appointed to one of the Ministers without Portfolio a Bill has to be introduced, I understand, and surely if that has to be done in the lesser case the bigger appointment ought to be made in the same way?
Mr Herbert Williams
, Croydon South
Is it not the case that an Act of Parliament passed about 1919, or two or three years before, authorised the appointment of three Ministers without Portfolio?
Mr Stanley Baldwin
, Bewdley
What my hon. Friend has said is right. With regard to the hon. Member for Leigh (Mr. Tinker), what he said in respect of the appointment of under-secretaries is right. The appointment of Ministers without Portfolio requires no Act.
Mr David Logan
, Liverpool Scotland
Could not these posts have been filled from the Employment Exchanges?
Mr John Tinker
, Leigh
Does the Prime Minister not think that future appointments of this kind might be considered by the House as a whole before they are made?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
