HC Deb 11 March 1953 vol 512 cc1420-4

9.57 p.m.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. John Boyd-Carpenter)

I beg to move, That, in the opinion of this House, the facilities now available to Members for free travel on certain journeys by public air services should include facilities, for the purpose of such journeys, for free travel between airport and air station in the coaches provided for persons using such services. This Motion is required to deal with a difficulty affecting the travelling facilities of hon. Members who travel to their homes or constituencies by air. Under a Resolution of the House of 15th November, 1945, which was moved by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Dalton), who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, air travel was included among the facilities available to hon. Members on the same basis as sea or rail travel. Last autumn, the airways corporations introduced a new system under which separate charges were made in respect of the buses which are available to take passengers from the air stations to the airports. It was found that the Resolution of the House of November, 1945, did not cover these separate charges to hon. Members for using these buses.

You yourself, Mr. Speaker, were good enough to draw the attention of my right hon. Friend to this difficulty and to indicate that a solution of it should be considered. This Motion is required to make it clear that such authority is now given. For the sake of people outside the House, I ought perhaps to make it clear that no new privilege is being given. All that is being done is to put the position back, as far as hon. Members are concerned, to that in which it was found before the airways corporations introduced the change in their system of charges.

It may interest the House to know that it is hoped to bring the new arrangements into operation before the Easter Recess. In the interval, while the necessary administrative arrangements are being made by the authorities of the House, hon. Members travelling by the special coach services will be able to obtain, on application at the Fees Office, a refund of the cost of coach tickets certified to have been used on authorised air transport after tonight.

9.59 p.m.

Mr. A. Woodburn (Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire)

I think the Government have taken a wise decision in proposing this modification. By international agreement there has been an alteration in the method by which the airline authorities issue their tickets and this has been not only a handicap and inconvenience, but also an additional expense.

I do not think that the general public quite realise the amount of expenses which Members of Parliament have to incur and which are not normally incurred by other people out of their income. This is a very great handicap to hon. Members, especially when it comes out of a salary which is approximately halved before it becomes a salary. Hon. Members have such a large number of expenses that even this concession will be both a convenience and a relief to all hon. Members, and I therefore hope that the House will agree to the Motion.

I took part in the original arrangement to try to get air travel made available for hon. Members, because the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland of that day found that it was quite impossible for him to get home by the ordinary methods of travel during and at the end of the war. It is essential from the point of view of conducting Parliamentary business in these outlying areas that Members who use this form of travel should be treated equally with those who travel by rail.

10.0 p.m.

Mr. John Rankin (Glasgow, Tradeston)

I wish to thank the Financial Secretary and the Government for the speed with which they have moved in this matter and to pay tribute to the services of Mr. Speaker, who was of great assistance to the small self-constituted committee of those specially affected by this increase in air transport costs.

We interviewed various authorities in the House and we received the utmost help. I also wish to pay tribute to the help we received from my right hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Dalton). He made it perfectly clear to those who had to consider the matter that the intention of the Government in which he was Chancellor of the Exchequer was that air transport should be free from terminal to terminal.

I am sure that my right hon. Friend will recollect that in replying to an intervention during the debate he pointed out that the Motion covered only public services. No one foresaw at that time that B.E.A. would farm out the road transport between airport and terminal to a private company and thereby put that part of the service completely outside the scope of the Motion. As I say, that difficulty has now been speedily overcome, and I wish to tender my thanks to all those who have helped in its removal.

10.3 p.m.

Mr. Alan McKibbin (Belfast, East)

In welcoming this Motion on behalf of the Northern Ireland Members, most of whom have to travel back to their constituencies each week-end. I wish to say how glad 1 am that my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury made it clear that this was not a new concession which was being granted to us, but merely something which put us once again on a level with all the other hon. Members who enjoy the facility of free travel between London and their constituencies. Had it not been granted it would have been another injustice to Ireland.

10.4 p.m.

Mrs. Jean Mann (Coatbridge and Airdrie)

I also wish to thank the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and yourself, Mr. Speaker, for taking this interest in providing facilities for Members of the House. In fairness, however, I think it ought to be pointed out that those of us who travel by air save the Treasury £4 8s. Those hon. Members who book a sleeper incur a debt of 36s. each way and 16s. extra on a first-class return. In other words, air fare is only £8. I fly regularly, and besides saving my own time, I am glad to know that I save the country a little money as well.

I hope now that the Treasury have been so generous as to put us on the same footing as railway travellers, the wives of Members will withdraw their objections to their husbands flying. Very few of us Members fly from Scotland. Indeed, in the last few months I have always been alone. [HON. MEMBERS: "Ah."] I understand that my hon. Friend the Member for Tradeston (Mr. Rankin) sometimes flies, but there have never been more than six of us using the planes. When we approach our friends who do not accompany us, they say that their wives have a strong objection to their adopting the modern method of travelling.

I hope, therefore, that this arrangement will enable these wives to withdraw their objections or will enable their husbands to fly in the face of their wives and, at the same time, save the Treasury a little money.

10.6 p.m.

Mr. J. Grimond (Orkney and Shetland)

I have no doubt that in future the hon. Lady the Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie (Mrs. Mann) will not only continue to perform a public service by flying, as she does, but probably will find it more enjoyable through having a large body of supporters in the aeroplane. As we continually accuse the Treasury of being mean, meagre and flint-hearted—though the money which they save is really our own—on this occasion, although it has been pointed out that they are not giving away any money, they are at least not standing in the way. They have made no difficulties in this case and, therefore, we are given an opportunity to thank the Treasury for moving this mountain aside.

I shall benefit very much from this concession and I am extremely grateful for it. I am glad to hear that it is an economy to fly, but I fear that as a result my constituents will have to suffer my presence more than they did in the days of travel by sea.

10.8 p.m.

Mr. John Taylor (West Lothian)

Following the statement made by my hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie (Mrs. Mann), I should like to say in defence of the wives of Members of Parliament that there are a good many of us who really prefer to fly. We have a liking for air travel, but we use the train because, oddly enough, it saves us time. We leave home on Sunday night, arrive here early on Monday morning for breakfast and are in the House at 8.30 a.m. before the cleaners have finished, and we do a full morning's work; whereas by air we would not arrive until 12.30 p.m. That is the chief reason we travel by train, though it is at a little more public expense.

We use air travel frequently and our wives have no objection whatever to it. It never crosses their minds that it is more dangerous than surface travel. Apparently it is only Prime Ministers who think occasionally that air travel is more dangerous than surface travel. [An HON. MEMBER: "And Chief Whips."] I should like to express my appreciation of this action to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and to you, Mr. Speaker. I underline the point that it will save money to the Treasury, the taxpayer and the nation.

10.9 p.m.

Mr. Emrys Hughes (South Ayrshire)

I have made a quick mental calculation and I believe that since I came to this House I have heard 583 speeches from the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, some of them bad, some of them indifferent. At last he has made a good speech. God bless him.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this House, the facilities now available to Members for free travel on certain journeys by public air services should include facilities, for the purpose of such journeys, for free travel between airport and air station in the coaches provided for persons using such services.