HC Deb 29 November 1966 vol 737 cc212-4
Q7. Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

asked the Prime Minister whether the public speech of the Minister without Portfolio at Doncaster on 29th October about direction of labour represents Government policy.

The Prime Minister

I would refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave on 3rd November to a similar Question by my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham, North (Mr. Arthur Lewis).—;[Vol. 735, c. 166.]

Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

Does the Prime Minister recall that that Answer referred to his right hon. Friend as saying that there was no question of direction of labour, whereas the only verbatim account of what he said was that no Government wished to introduce direction of labour? As this Government are doing what "no Government would wish to do" about once a week, could not the Prime Minister give a clearer reassurance on this point than that?

The Prime Minister

I think the hon. Member is aware of the circumstances of the issue of the hand-out and the difference between what was in the handout and what my right hon. Friend actually said. He made it clear that this is something which no Government would wish to do in peace time, and I have repeatedly said that there is no question of introducing direction of labour in our policy. I have said this in the House two or three times recently, but, if the hon. Member wants to get a bit of fun out of an Evening Standard stunt about particular shorthand writers, he is perfectly at liberty to do so.

Mr. Harold Walker

Is my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister aware that on the occasion referred to in the Question I sat next to my right hon. Friend the Minister without Portfolio and distinctly heard him add the qualification which was quoted in The Times on 31st October that such action was unthinkable in times of peace; that the hand-out issued by the Labour Party instructed journalists to check against delivery; that there was a local journalist present who did this and who confirmed the correction; and that the local people who were present at the meeting consider such questions to be nothing other than silly, trivial, squalid muck-raking?

The Prime Minister

I would certainly take that statement from my hon. Friend, who was there, rather than from the hon. Member for South Angus (Mr. Bruce-Gardyne) or from the political stunt in the Evening Standard a couple of days later. The Times was right, and this hand-out was subject to check against delivery. Anyone who knows my right hon. Friend will know perfectly well what he meant and will accept—[Interruption.] Hon. Gentlemen know that what I said is correct—that, if my right hon. Friend made the statement, he was speaking on behalf of the Government. It has been confirmed repeatedly in the House that there is no question of direction of labour.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

If there is no question of the Government's introducing direction of labour, why did the Minister without Portfolio put a reference to it in his hand-out?

The Prime Minister

The right hon. Gentleman had perhaps better study the full statement and he will see the reasons why my right hon. Friend raised this question, that this was one of the things that a Government might be forced into if they did not do certain things, including a prices and incomes policy. My right hon. Friend went on to say, as my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster (Mr. Harold Walker) confirmed, he being present, and the right hon. Gentleman not being present, that there was no question of it in peace time.