§ 29. Mr. Collinsasked the Minister of Food if he is aware that the retail prices of various foods, including jam, marmalade, tea, coffee, flour, bacon, rice, tinned peas, and meat, have been increased since 22 1st January; and what steps his Department is taking, by price control or otherwise, to implement the Government's policy of first stabilising and then reducing the cost of living.
Dr. HillThe only way of measuring the effect of price changes is the Interim Index of Retail Prices. This shows that in the past three years the percentage rise in the Index has been less than in any other three years since it was instituted.
§ Mr. CollinsIs the Minister aware that in the last three years sugar prices have increased by 50 per cent., those of butter and margarine by one-third, and of meat, flour and bacon by one-fifth, all in flagrant disregard of the Government's election pledges? Is he further aware that the tea companies have advised people that if they wish to go on drinking tea they had better stop smoking? Is it the Government's new price policy that if people are to go on eating they must stop drinking?
Dr. HillI make no comment upon the competition between eating and drinking, but the rise in food prices during the last three years is little more than half that of the preceding three years.
§ 42. Mr. Lewisasked the Minister of Food if he is aware that food prices rose again last year and that there has been a continual rise in food prices since October, 1951; what proposals he has to implement the Government's declared policy of reducing food prices; and when he anticipates that food prices will be reduced to their October, 1951, level.
Dr. HillYes, Sir. Food prices have increased by about 18 per cent. since January, 1952, but in the preceding three years, for which the party opposite was responsible, the rise in food prices was about 34 per cent. The effect last year was to increase the Interim Index of Retail Prices by 4 per cent., but in the same period, so fulfilling the Government's policy of stabilising wages and prices, wages rose by 4.3 per cent.
§ Mr. AttleeDoes not the hon. Gentleman realise that the Question that he was asked is about prices, the Government pledge, and what has happened since that pledge? It is irrelevant to bring in a comparison with previous years.
Dr. HillI can quite understand that the right hon. Gentleman finds tiresome the fact that prices have risen little more than half as compared with the previous three years.
§ Mr. AttleeDid not the Government of which the hon. Gentleman is a member declare that they were going to reduce prices, but have not done so?
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is Question Time.
Dr. HillIt is all too evident that the party opposite is dismayed at the improvement that has taken place.
§ Mr. StokesIs the Minister aware that the people who have to consume food are not interested in the rate of the rise but in the fact of the rise? Is it not a fact that since October, 1951, the cost of such things as bread, meat, flour and tea, and one or two other items, is up 50 per cent.? The hon. Gentleman cannot deny it, nor can any of his colleagues.
§ Dr. SummerskillAm I not right in saying that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food made a broadcast two or three days before polling day in which he personally gave an undertaking that the cost of living would be reduced? [Interruption.]
§ Mr. Speaker rose——
§ Mr. LewisOn a point of order. Is it not your usual custom, Mr. Speaker, other things being equal, to allow the hon. Member who has asked a Question to ask the first supplementary question? I asked this Question, and I rose on my feet on several occasions. Am I to assume that you have not seen me, Mr. Speaker?
§ Mr. SpeakerIt is true that the hon. Member asked the original Question, but there were interventions by right hon. Gentlemen before I could call him. I have not lost sight of the hon. Gentleman.
§ Mr. StokesFurther to that point of order. Before the Minister resigns, can 24 we have an answer from him to a very important question on this rise in the cost of food? We all know that prices have gone up, but the Government evade the point by doing what the average civil servant always does, refer to percentages and averages, in order to spiflicate the public?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe right hon. Gentleman is addressing an argument to me which may be very interesting, but it has nothing to do with the point of order.
Mr. I. O. ThomasFurther to the point of order. You called attention just now, Mr. Speaker, to the fact that it was Question Time. Would it not be in order to call the attention of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food to the fact that it is also reply time?
§ Mr. SpeakerI have no doubt that replies will be given if the House exercises a little patience.
§ Mr. NabarroIs it not a fact that industrial wages are now at a record high level and have increased by 50 per cent. more than the price of food has increased in the last three years?
§ Mr. LewisMay I revert to the Parliamentary Secretary's answer and ask him whether he is not aware that in the three years referred to, prior to the present Government's coming into power, world import prices rose but food prices rose far less rapidly here than in any other country in the world, whereas since this Government have been in power the reverse is the case, and that world import prices have fallen while the cost of food has risen to a higher level than ever before?
Dr. HillIt is natural for the hon. Member to find his best excuses. The plain fact remains that in the last three years of the previous Administration the cost of living rose nearly twice as much.