HC Deb 15 June 1965 vol 714 cc247-9
The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)

With permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a statement.

I have just received from Lord Mountbatten a Report on his mission to a number of Commonwealth countries to discuss the control of immigration into the United Kingdom. This mission has been immensely valuable in securing real understanding between the countries visited and ourselves about the nature of the problems we are facing, and we are greatly indebted to Lord Mountbatten.

Lord Mountbatten's discussions with Commonwealth Governments were on a strictly confidential basis and his Report will not be published. We are studying it urgently, and I am looking forward to having some discussion with the Commonwealth Prime Ministers principally concerned while they are in London this week and next.

After that, the Government intend to make a full and detailed statement to the House of what is proposed in the light of these discussions.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home

I join the Prime Minister in thanking Lord Mountbatten for having undertaken this task on top of his other duties. As the Prime Minister said, a statement will be made as soon as possible. That statement will, no doubt, be subject to debate and I hope that the Prime Minister will agree that we should have a debate on it as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister

I think that the right hon. Gentleman had better wait and see the statement first. Then, of course, there would be discussions through the usual channels. I am not at this moment making any promise on my right hon. Friend's behalf about a debate, but we shall make the statement as quickly as we can.

Sir C. Osborne

Arising from the report made by Lord Mountbatten and the subsequent discussions which the Prime Minister will have with the Commonwealth Prime Ministers on this extremely difficult issue, will the right hon. Gentleman promise the House and the country that he will make it clear to our visiting friends that the policy of immigration is a matter for the decision of the people of this country and not for the Commonwealth as a whole?

The Prime Minister

One of the problems here is that whatever is done—and concern has been expressed on both sides of the House about the problems of evasion and a number of other questions—should be done, so far as possible, in consultation with and, wherever possible, in agreement with and with the help of the Commonwealth Governments. This Report is extremely valuable in this connection. I only wish that it were possible to publish it but, for reasons which the House will understand, it is not. The discussions with our Commonwealth friends have proceeded in an amicable way and I am not sure that the phrase which sounded somewhat truculent in the mouth of the hon. Member for Louth (Sir C. Osborne) helps to carry forward what we all want to achieve.

Mr. Thorpe

While associating myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister about Lord Mountbatten having undertaken this tour, may I ask him two questions? First, in view of the confidential nature of the discussions with his Commonwealth colleagues, will he try to obtain from them agreement for a statement to be made to this House, giving the widest possible information, so that we are not covered by a communiqué which, in effect, for reasons of the confidential nature of the matter, really hides most of the discussion?

Secondly, if the right hon Gentleman takes this view, will he press for a special conference to be held later, with Ministers from Commonwealth countries, exclusively to discuss the question of immigration, instead of having the subject on what will be a very long agenda where only the main outlines can be discussed?

The Prime Minister

The hon. Gentleman referred to a communiqué. I referred to having discussions with the Prime Ministers principally concerned while they are in London. I was not implying that there was to be a general discussion with my Prime Minister colleagues at the conference on this problem but that there would be a series of bilateral discussions, following the contacts made by Lord Mountbatten. We will certainly make the fullest possible statement to the House, but, in the interests of getting the best results, the statement should be made on the authority of the Government. I do not think that it would be fair to our Commonwealth colleagues necessarily to associate them in every detail with the particular points we are making.

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