May I say something about the scale of the operation and quote certain schools as examples? At the Howard Secondary Modern School, Welwyn Garden City, 13 governors were appointed by the county council of whom three were nominated by the Mid-Herts Divisional Executive, and one new appointment was made to the governing body. At Heronswood Secondary Modern School, 13 governors were appointed by the county council with one new appointment. At Monks Walk Secondary Modern School there were 13 governors appointed by the county council with one new appointment. At Welwyn Garden Grammar School 10 governors were appointed by the county council with one new appointment.

In all, there have been 32 new appointments, to take the figure which the noble Lord gave, out of about 300 governors and managers, of whom 158 were appointed by the local education authority and less than half on the advice of the Mid-Herts local education authority. Of those not reappointed either their term of office had come to an end or they have been given explanations.

I have not time to go into individual cases even if I wanted to and it would not be fair to individuals; I do not think the noble Lord was fair to the individuals he mentioned by bringing out their embarrassment in the way that he did. I am told that a number of reasons operated. One was poor attendance and another was a desire in the case of the infant schools to get more women serving on the management bodies. To give an example, there were five men and a woman on one manegement body. There are now three men and three women.

The statement which the noble Lord quoted from Mr. Leonard Bowmer in the Press said quite categorically that no one was removed because of membership of a political party. I accept that statement and I am sure that the noble Lord should accept it. I do not know what grounds he has for making the implication which he has made against someone who has given local service of the quality which Mr. Bowmer has given education over so many years.

Not all those brought on to the governing bodies are members of the Labour Party. They include many people who are either political opponents of the Labour Party or who have no party politics. It is true that there has been a shift to greater Labour membership. There is now a larger Labour membership of the governing bodies than there was before. The explanation for that is that when the divisional executive was under Conservative control for so many years it was guilty of some of the practices of which the noble Lord has complained.

The present situation is that if one takes the party balance on these governing bodies—I wish that we had not started this argument; the noble Lord started it—the share of Labour members on the governing bodies in that area is considerably smaller than the proportion of Labour support if measured in terms of the three district councils, or in terms of the votes cast in the county council election or General Election in that area. If one took that and transposed it on to these governing bodies, the Labour Party would be entitled to a bigger share that it has had since these alterations were made.

One figure which I have been given shows that in those governing bodies in the area of the Hatfield R.D.C. there are 88 Conservative or Independent school governors and managers and 55 Labour, whereas on the Rural District Council itself there are 11 Labour Members, 11 Conservatives and two Independents. This is an illustration of what I mean. There has been a shift, but it has not been anything like the kind of takeover bid implied in the remarks of the noble Lord.

The final point that I want to make is this. These appointments have been confirmed by the county council, which is a Conservative-controlled county council. It is much more a matter for them than for me. It has the authority to make these appointments. It is true that, traditionally, it does not normally interfere with the nomination, but if this were a case in which educational standards had been set aside in order to satisfy the political ambitions of local Labour people those would be exactly the kind of circumstances in which the county council would have intervened and used its powers; it has done nothing of the sort.

The noble Lord has made remarks which will not serve the cause of education in his area. I say to him frankly that those who voluntarily give their time to be governors and managers of schools do a very valuable job and deserve the support of their Member of Parliament. They should not start their term of office with the sort of attacks which the noble Lord has made tonight. I do not think that he has done a service to education. I think that if anyone is tending to spoil the educational standards of the area by introducing party politics in the wrong fashion——