§ 24. Lieut.-Colonel Liptonasked the Minister of Food what increases he has recently authorised in the profit margins of retail butchers; what the total amount is of these increases; and what effect they will have on meat prices.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeFrom 16th February, margins were adjusted to raise the profit to the trade by £1.8 million in a full year. This adjustment is only one of many factors and will not of itself significantly affect retail prices.
§ Lieut.-Colonel LiptonHow is it possible for butchers to get another £1.8 million a year out of the meat trade without that affecting the price of meat 1219 to the consumer? Is not this just another case of how everybody does well under the present Administration except the wretched consuming public?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeI said in my answer that this is only one of many factors. If this factor were the only one, the retail price of meat would rise about.15d.
§ Mr. KeenanIs the right hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that the retail butchers are able to get whatever price they like because he will not do what we have asked him to do—get them to exhibit the price per lb. of the commodity so that the customer knows what he is buying? The butchers are already getting more than they are allowed.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThis is exactly the same method as was employed in May, 1951.
§ Mr. ChapmanWill the Minister give an honest answer to the Question? [HON. MEMBERS: "Withdraw!"] Will the Minister give a straight answer to it? [Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerI cannot hear what is being said.
§ Mr. ChapmanWill the Minister give an assurance that he will take some of this margin from the butchers if they will not agree to a universal scheme for displaying meat prices in the shops?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeNo, Sir.
30. Mr. G. Wilsonasked the Minister of Food whether his Department will include a higher proportion of beef in the ordinary meat ration allocated to the St. Austell district of Cornwall on the grounds that its population contains a large number of workers engaged in heavy work in the china clay industry, who are not, and cannot be, provided with canteen facilities and whose traditional diet of Cornish pasties cannot be suitable prepared with mutton or pork.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeNo, Sir. The St. Austell district is receiving on average its fair proportion of beef and an increase could only be made at the expense of allocations to other districts.
Mr. WilsonIs the Minister aware that not only are the St. Austell china 1220 clay workers very big dollar earners in the export market, but Cornwall is a beef exporting county, and will my right hon. and gallant Friend look into the special case of the clay workers, as their needs cannot be met by industrial canteens?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThe real position is that the St. Austell district percentage is slightly better than that for the western area as a whole.
§ Lieut.-Colonel LiptonWill the right hon. and gallant Gentleman ask the butchers of St. Austell to make this concession in return for their share of the bonus of £1.8 million which he has just announced?