HC Deb 20 January 1969 vol 776 cc1-3
1. Mr. Marten

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity in how many months in 1967 and 1968 the total of wholly unemployed, seasonally adjusted and excluding school-leavers, has been above 500,000.

The Under-Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity (Mr. E. Fernyhough)

Twenty from May 1967 onwards.

Mr. Marten

How does this lamentable story square with the election pledge of full employment and, moreover, the Prime Minister's devaluation statement that by the end of 1968 it would be a shortage of labour which would be the problem? Is the slightly downward trend now levelling off?

Mr. Fernyhoogh

I hope that, far from levelling off, it will continue. As the hon. Gentleman, with a 1.7 per cent. unemployment problem in Banbury, is naturally worried about this, all I want him to know is that, although the numbers may be much higher than most of us would like, it is not to be forgotten that the cross which the unemployed carry is, as a consequence of redundancy payments and wage-related benefits, a little lighter than it would have been had hon. Members opposite been in power.

Mr. Leadbitter

Will my hon. Friend bear in mind that, although the national figures have their own importance, the point to be emphasised here arises in the regions? Will he, therefore, assure the House that the Government will continue to give substantial aid to the regions to carry on the process of attracting new employment there?

Mr. Fernyhough

I cannot think that the Government can do otherwise in the present circumstances than do everything within their power to redress the imbalance in unemployment between the development areas and the rest of the country.

Mr. R. Carr

On what grounds does the hon. Gentleman say that the figures would have been higher had we been in power, since when we were in power they were consistently lower?

Mr. Fernyhough

I did not say that. But what I say in reply to the right hon. Gentleman is that if his Government had commenced the restructuring of British industry as they should have done when they were in power, the problem would not have been as big today as it is.