NATIONALISED INDUSTRY BOARDS (SALARIES)

HC Deb 13 April 1967 vol 744 cc1372-3

Q5. Mr. Ridley

asked the Prime Minister if he will co-ordinate the policies of the Minister of Power, the Minister of Transport and the President of the Board of Trade with regard to the salaries of members of nationalised industry boards.

The Prime Minister

The arrangements for such co-ordination are already satisfactory.

Mr. Ridley

Now that egalitarianism appears to be over and salaries of £24,000 a year appear to be "in", is the Prime Minister satisfied with a situation in which he pays the leaders of the gas, electricity and coal industries and the air corporations very nearly half of what he is paying the leaders of the steel industry? Ought he not to right this injustice?

The Prime Minister

If this is an injustice, the precedent for it was the payment of £24,000 a year to Lord Beeching by the previous Government.

Sir G. Nabarro

Good value for money!

The Prime Minister

The position is that we are faced with special problems in the steel industry, of which I believe the hon. Member for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (Mr. Ridley) is considerably informed, through family connections.

Mr. Ridley

On a point of order. I have no connection whatsoever with the steel industry, and I shall be grateful if the Prime Minister will withdraw that allegation.

The Prime Minister

I used the phrase "family connection", but if I am wrong about that, too, I withdraw it. I was making an observation on a subject with which the hon. Member is well familiar, and I therefore call him in aid in this matter in support of the fact that for leaders in the steel industry, including those who will be the servants of the Board to which the salaries are to be paid, the salaries are already higher than those which are normally paid to members of nationalised boards. In those circumstances it was thought wrong to pay the members of the Board salaries lower than the salaries paid to those employed by them. This was a special reason in the case of the steel industry, and I thought that it was the view of hon. Members on both sides during the passage of the Bill that this should be the position.