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Administration Committee

I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that observation, and I agree with him entirely. At present, the difficulty is that a decision is taken as to who should be Chairman of a Committee without taking into account the views of that Committee. As I said, I think that there is a need for party allocation, and speaking as a former council leader for too many years, I am afraid that I recognise the practicalities of organising these matters to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Ultimately, however, it seems entirely appropriate that members of a Committee, being aware of the political party to which a chairmanship has been allocated, should nevertheless have a free vote on whom they choose in that capacity. That might circumvent some of the unpleasant manifestations of power struggles within the Government party, which seem to have delayed proceedings on this occasion.