§ 21. Mr. Croninasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his monetary policy with regard to the pending claims for increased wages, which have been announced by the trade unions concerned.
§ Mr. BarberIn framing monetary and other policies, my right hon. Friend has to take into account many factors, including the risks of a renewal of inflationary pressures. Moderation in rises in the general level of wages and other incomes has an important part to play in maintaining stability in costs and prices and in enabling a satisfactory expansion of the economy to take place without inflation.
§ Mr. CroninWill the hon. Member at least reassure the House that monetary policy will not be deliberately used to create unemployment in future, as occurred during the last Parliament?
§ Mr. BarberThe whole question of monetary policy and any other measures which we might take has been explained in great detail by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the debate on the Radcliffe Report and since in Question and Answer.
Mr. H. WilsonDoes the Minister's Answer mean that the Chancellor has decided his policy on wages for this year before even having the figures about what happened last year? Is it not a fact that, for four or five years, successive Chancellors have stood at that Box making the same speeches about wages and that it needed 1959 experience to show that, when the Government accepted our advice and let production rise, it was possible for wages to increase without there being an increase in costs?
§ Mr. BarberI am afraid that I cannot accept what the right hon. Gentleman has said. Our policy in this matter will be flexible. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Our policy is much better than the rigid policies which we had before 1951. We shall succeed only if we have the active co-operation of all sectors of the economy.
Mr. WilsonDoes the hon. Member mean by flexibility a policy under which production was not allowed to rise for four years? In contrasting present-day policies with policies before 1951, will the hon. Gentleman recognise that what he calls rigidity led to an increase in national production more than double that achieved in the last four years?
§ Mr. BarberWhat I meant was that our policies will achieve the sort of satisfactory results which we have achieved since 1951 and which have been endorsed by the electorate.