HC Deb 27 February 1973 vol 851 cc1261-3
6. Mr. Hardy

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total number of working days lost through industrial disputes in the five years 1st January 1965 to 31st December 1969 and the number of days so lost in 1972.

Mr. Maurice Macmillan

The figures are 19.6 million and 23.9 million respectively.

Mr. Hardy

Does not that huge, fivefold increase suggest that the Conservative promise of a sovereign remedy in 1970 has proved to be merely an aggravation of a problem which the Conservative Party grossly distorted in the period up to 1970?

Mr. Macmillan

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the 1972 figures have been distorted by stoppages in the coal, building and docks industries. The number of stoppages has been accepted by successive Governments as being an equally important indicator, and the annual average number of stoppages in the two complete years of the present Government is slightly less than the average annual number of stoppages over the five complete years of the previous Labour Government.

Mr. Redmond

Was not 1972 the worst year in terms of days lost through strikes since 1926? Is not that hardly surprising in view of the fact that 1926 was the last occasion before 1972 when we had to decide who governed the country—Parliament or the trade unions?

Mr. Macmillan

If my hon. Friend is saying that in 1926 and in 1972 we suffered coal strikes, that is certainly so, but the strikes in the building and docks industries contributed to the exceptional difficulties in 1972.

Mr. Harold Walker

The right hon. Gentleman said that the number of strikes was as significant as the number of days lost. Is he aware that his predecessor stressed repeatedly to the House that it was of much greater significance that the number of strikes should be reduced? Contrary to the presentation which the right hon. Gentleman has given to the House, in 1972 the number of disputes was greater than the average for the whole of the period of the Labour Government and significantly higher than in four of the years of the Labour Government.

Mr. Macmillan

The number of stoppages in 1972 was very much lower than the number in 1970, and the average annual number of stoppages in the five years of Labour government was slightly more than the average annual number of stoppages in the two complete years of Tory government.