HC Deb 20 May 1971 vol 817 cc1511-3
Q1. Mr. Skinner

asked the Prime Minister whether he will place in the Library a copy of the public speech made on 5th May atThe Guardiandinner in London on the European Economic Community.

Q4. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of the public speech he made in London on 5th May concerning the European Economic Community.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Reginald Maudling)

I have been asked to reply.

A copy of this speech was placed in the Library on 6th May.

Mr. Skinner

Vouz avez, avez-vows? [Laughter.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. I cannot hear the hon. Member.

Mr. Skinner

Est-ce que—

Mr. Speaker

Order. The hon. Member should try again, in another language.

Mr. Skinner

I accept your Ruling, Mr. Speaker. I was trying to explain to the House, particularly to those hon. Members who are pro-European, that as a result of the Prime Minister's meeting with M. Pompidou last night—[HON. MEMBERS: "Question."] I am merely asking whether the Prime Minister took any French lessons before he met M. Pompidou in Paris.

Mr. Maudling

I think my right hon. Friend is fully briefed on every aspect of the problem.

Mr. William Hamilton

Did not the Prime Minister say that we should enter the European Economic Community with clear eyes and without self-deception? While it might be apparent to some of us that the long-term advantages of getting into the Common Market might be quite considerable, the short-term price we have to pay might be completely unacceptable. Will the right hon. Gentleman take good care that the Prime Minister will spell out in detail the short-term price we are bound to have to pay?

Mr. Maudling

It is surely one of the great problems with succeeding negotions that the short-term factors are very different from the long-term factors. In the economic field, the long-term factors are probably predominant, but it has been quite evident in debates in the House that both the long-term and the short-term considerations must be watched.

Mr. Harold Wilson

Will the right hon. Gentleman, while congratulating my hon. Friend on his French, which is about as good as the Prime Minister's and better than mine, in relation to the speech made by the Prime Minister at The Guardian dinner, give an assurance that in the talks now proceeding in Paris the Prime Minister will not enter into any commitment about nuclear pooling or about any special bilateral defence relationship with France, or hint that this may be part of an ultimate deal? This is of fundamental importance to the House's attitude to this question.

Mr. Maudling

As these talks are now taking place, as the agenda is confidential and as my right hon. Friend will be making a full statement to the House when he returns, it would be quite wrong for me to answer that supplementary question.

Mr. Wilson

Of course the agenda is confidential, and of course the talks are confidential until the Prime Minister makes a statement to the House, but this point has been raised many times in the House and we are now confused by the amount of Press briefing on this question. Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the House is entitled to an assurance that there will be no commitment on this highly controversial question before there has been a report to the House by the Prime Minister and before he can get the authority of the House, which he will not get from this side of the House, to make such an offer?

Mr. Maudling

As the right hon. Gentleman says, this matter has often been raised in the House and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is clearly well aware of it.

Mr. Longden

If my right hon. Friend did take French lessons before going to Paris, may we learn the name of his teacher so that we may avoid drinking from the same obviously British source?

Mr. McBride

Is it the commonly held Government view that, as expressed by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, assuming we join the Common Market, in the short term there will be a savage downturn in our trade? Will he clarify the position for the House and the country?

Mr. Maudling

My right hon. Friend did not use that language or anything like it. I answered this point earlier when I said that there are short-term and long-term factors in this whole equation, some pluses and some minuses. We must weigh up the totality.