HC Deb 27 January 1970 vol 794 cc1199-201
Q1. Mr. Marten

asked the Prime Minister if he is satisfied with the coordination between the various Ministers who have responsibilities for the economy of the country, in view of the most recent trade figures.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Roy Jenkins)

I have been asked to reply.

Yes, Sir.

Mr. Marten

How can the Chancellor be satisfied with a situation where unemployment is at the highest level practically since the end of the war, excluding the two bad winters? What is he going to do about it?

Mr. Jenkins

The Question the hon. Gentleman asked was related to the trade figures and the division of responsibility between economics Ministers. The level of unemployment is almost exactly 200,000 below what it was in January, 1963.

Mr. Barnett

Has my right hon. Friend seen the recent study carried out on the subject of poverty? Now that the economic situation is considerably improved—and we are all grateful to him for his work towards that end—will he consider the suggestion put forward in the document for the setting up of a Royal Commission to consider poverty? Would this not perhaps be the best way of dealing with what is still a serious problem?

Mr. Jenkins

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and I will study the document and consider the matter, but I am not sure that my hon. Friend's supplementary question arose directly from the Question on the Order Paper.

Sir Harmar Nicholls

The right hon. Gentleman replied to this Question in the affirmative. Is he aware that the Prime Minister should not be satisfied with the co-ordination between the Board of Trade and the Treasury, for example? It is the right rate of interest that is affecting unemployment figures and our general potential for doing trade. The Prime Minister should not be satisfied, whether the Chancellor is or not.

Mr. Jenkins

Both the Prime Minister and I are satisfied with the co-ordination. We are certainly satisfied with the trade figures. There are problems relating to interest rates but this is an international and not exclusively a British problem.

Mr. Roebuck

Is not my right hon. Friend playing this matter too softly? Is it not a fact that we have magnificent trade figures and that we are recovering from the mess which the party opposite put the country in? Is there not good reason for saying that we should be abundantly satisfied with the way Ministers are co-ordinating these matters?

Mr. Jenkins

Should I be in danger of playing it too softly, my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East (Mr. Roebuck) would no doubt help me.

Mr. Maudling

Can the right hon. Gentleman really be satisfied with a situation in which there has been certainly an improvement in the balance of payments but no greater in scale than that achieved by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Wirral (Mr. Selwyn Lloyd) and which has been accompanied by enormous and continuous overseas debt, a vast increase in taxation, record interest rates, very high unemployment and catastrophic housing figures?

Mr. Jenkins

There is certainly not an enormous and continuing overseas debt. There is a reducing overseas debt. In so far as it was wise of the right hon. Gentleman to refer back to the period of office of the right hon. and learned Member for Wirral (Mr. Selwyn Lloyd) and not to his own as Chancellor, I can tell him that 1969 will be the best year on current account since 1958 and probably the best year on the balance of payments, both on current and capital account, since records were kept.

Mr. Thorpe

Since the right hon. Gentleman is replying on behalf of the Prime Minister, can he say whether the Prime Minister is satisfied that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is sufficiently in touch with views of the Minister of Agriculture about the economic plight of the agricultural industry?

Mr. Jenkins

Yes, Sir. I believe that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is so satisfied. I myself am so satisfied, having had the pleasure of receiving, with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, a deputation from the N.F.U. only last Friday.

Mr. Sheldon

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that the point about the recent encouraging balance of payments figures is that the situation is under control for the first time in 15 years? That is what is important. This is the first time we have seen this large and continuing balance and have been able to predict it. Will he, in considering the distribution of some small part of the reward, for which so much credit is due to him, consider turning his attention to the prescription charges?

Mr. Jenkins

It is certainly true that the balance of payments result is the best for a considerable time and I notice that, as it has been achieved, right hon. and hon. Members opposite have become increasingly unanxious to talk about it but increasingly anxious to talk about every other possible subject. I note what my hon. Friend has said about the prescript ion charges.