HC Deb 04 May 1961 vol 639 cc1588-90
27. Mr. C. Osborne

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what factors cause him to oppose any restriction of emigration from Colonial Territories into the United Kingdom, in view of the grave disquiet of the general public at Her Majesty's Government's refusal to take action in this matter.

Mr. Iain Macleod

As has been made clear, Her Majesty's Government, while watching the situation with care and concern, have not reached firm conclusions on a matter which raises an important question of principle and involves our relations with other countries in the Commonwealth.

Mr. Osborne

Whilst recognising the grave and difficult problems which face the Government in making this decision, may I impress upon my right hon. Friend how deep is the anxiety felt by people in this country at this growing problem? Will my right hon. Friend urge his Cabinet colleagues to do something quickly please?

Mr. Macleod

I share that anxiety. The statement which I made, which was of course agreed by all the Ministers and Departments concerned, indicates no change whatever in Her Majesty's Government's view on this matter. I would feel that on this almost all the House should unite on two things—first, that the figures for 1960 and the first quarter of 1961 are frankly very disturbing indeed, but secondly that it would be extremely distasteful if we had to come to the point of imposing legislation which would run counter to the very long-established tradition of Britain being the centre for the Commonwealth countries.

Sir J. Duncan

Would my right hon. Friend agree that it would be easy to take action now in advance but that if conditions changed in this country, with an increase in unemployment, and if immigration increased as it has done in the last few months, the problem would become much more difficult to deal with?

Mr. Macleod

In one sense what my hon. Friend says is perfectly true. In another sense it works in exactly the opposite way, because the figures of immigration are immensely sensitive to the employment situation in this country, as the small recession which we had two years ago showed.

Mr. D. Howell

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in the recent Small Heath by-election the Conservative candidate talked about nothing else but this racial matter and he had a catastrophic defeat?

Mr. Macleod

I do not know what happened in the by-play at the Small Heath by-election but I believe that almost everybody would agree that it would be very sad if we had to depart from our traditional position in this matter. Everybody ought to be concerned at the figures of immigration as the statistics have shown them.

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