HC Deb 02 December 1969 vol 792 cc1271-3
10. Mr. Pardoe

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the repayment of war loan.

Mr. Diamond

I have nothing to add to previous Government statements on this matter.

Mr. Pardoe

Is it not disgraceful that members of the public who invested in these loans, often from a sense of patriotism rather than for pecuniary gain, should be made to suffer the full burden of subsequent disastrous economic policies, and will he agree that the record of this loan shows that no one should ever again invest in the word of a British Government?

Mr. Diamond

No, Sir; I could not possibly subscribe to that statement. I recognise and affirm that it is regrettable that many people have lost money on this stock, though many others have gained money. But one has to stick to the terms on which the stock was issued and on which people knew for certain that they would subscribe.

Mr. Lipton

Will my right hon. Friend consider the possibility of repaying the loan over a period, say, at 10 per cent. per annum for 10 years? Let us make a start.

Mr. Diamond

No, Sir. This matter has been considered most sympathetically by me and by many of my predecessors. Every time everyone has reached the identical conclusion, that it is not possible to deal with it along the lines suggested.

Mr. Tom Boardman

Will not the right hon. Gentleman consider allowing those who have held their stock for a very long time to convert it into a similar stock with a redemption date?

Mr. Diamond

No doubt the hon. Gentleman knows that the stock originally had a redemption date, and there was a conversion offer made, which was accepted by those who went into the stock. Therefore, everyone did it with his eyes wide open. I share everyone's regret—I did my best when on the other side of the House to give voice to it—and I looked into the matter most sympathetically, but I reached the same conclusion as everyone, including—when he was the Economic Secretary—the present chairman of the Conservative Party.

Mr. Barnett

As this war loan was at 109 in the 1940s, has it not been a normal investment risk? I declare an interest in that I myself bought some at 45. Apart from the personal gain to myself, would it not be utterly ridiculous to repay at 100, and will my right hon. Friend once and for all squash the idea that there is unfairness or that it should be repaid at 100?

Mr. Diamond

I am grateful to my hon. Friend; he seems, as in most other things, to have managed his affairs a good deal better than I do; I bought at a very different price.