HC Deb 10 June 1952 vol 502 cc29-31
64. Mr. Hector Hughes

asked the Minister of Labour his plans to arrest the increasing unemployment in Scotland; and when they will be implemented.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Harold Watkinson)

Unemployment in Scotland is decreasing not increasing as the hon. and learned Member suggests. A considerable volume of defence work has been allocated to Scotland and should soon absorb additional workers. It is hoped that the recent improvement in the employment position in Scotland will continue.

Mr. Hughes

If the hon. Gentleman will look into the figures once again he will find that his initial statement is inaccurate. Is he aware that for five years there was real employment in Scotland, and will he try to live up to that high standard?

Mr. Watkinson

Since February the unemployment figures in Scotland have decreased by just under 10,000, and in Aberdeen, where is the hon. and learned Gentleman's own constituency, by approximately 900.

Mr. Ross

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that he has given a completely false picture, because although that may appear from the figures shown by the labour exchanges, at any rate, in one of the best employment areas in Scotland—Kilmarnock—the fact is that there is short-time working in all the consumer industries throughout Scotland? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that these facts disprove completely the false impression he has given in that answer?

Mr. Watkinson

My right hon. and learned Friend in no way under-estimates the difficulties which lie ahead of all of us in this unemployment problem. There have been difficulties in Scotland, due particularly to cancellation of orders from Australia—[HON. MEMBERS: "There still are."]—as my right hon. and learned Friend knows well; but I have answered the Question asked by the hon. and learned Gentleman, and unemployment in Scotland at the moment is decreasing.

Mr. Manuel

Nonsense.

Mr. Watkinson

We hope to continue that decrease.

Mr. Hughes

Does not the hon. Gentleman realise that it is inaccurate for him to take certain phases of industry where there is no unemployment and give figures for those alone? I asked for the figures for the whole country, and I suggest to him that the figures for the whole country show that there is increasing unemployment in Scotland.

Mr. Watkinson

On the contrary. It is important to get this matter right. I did quote to the hon. and learned Gentleman the figures both for the whole of Scotland and for his own area of Aberdeen, and in both cases, as I told him—and I am very glad to be able to announce this from this Box—there is at the moment a decrease of unemployment. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] I should have thought that hon. Members on the other side of the House would have been as delighted as I am to know this. It is my sincere hope, and the hope of my right hon. and learned Friend, that we shall be able to maintain this tendency.

Mr. Hamilton

In view of the grossly misleading nature of that answer, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment.

Mr. Speaker

That is not the proper way to give notice. The hon. Member ought to say, "In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply …" and so on.

Mr. Manuel

May I say that now?

Mr. Hughes

In view of the entirely unsatisfactory and inaccurate nature of the answer, I give notice that I shall raise this matter at the earliest moment on the Adjournment.