TUC AND CBI

HC Deb 10 December 1974 vol 883 cc232-4

Q2. Mr. Ashley

asked the Prime Minister when he next proposes to meet the TUC and CBI.

Mr. Edward Short

I have been asked to reply.

My right hon. Friend has no immediate plans to meet representatives of the CBI but he has agreed to meet representatives of the TUC later this week to receive their views on issues raised by the case of the Shrewsbury pickets.

Mr. Ashley

The TUC is asked to campaign for many people, including the Shrewsbury pickets, but my purpose in raising the Question today is to request my right hon. Friend to ask the Prime Minister next time he sees the TUC to urge it to campaign for disabled people. It is time that disabled people were made part of the social contract. Will my right hon. Friend ask the Prime Minister to take up with the TUC the welfare of disabled people, which is a major consideration in carrying out the social contract?

Mr. Short

My hon. Friend is pushing at an open door. Disabled people are a very important part of the social contract. The social contract is concerned with all people who are unable to work or whose ability to work is impaired because of age, youth and disability. Certainly the social contract is concerned with those people, and that is why the Government have paid so much attention to them.

Mr. Kenneth Lewis

Will the right hon. Gentleman ask the Prime Minister, when he returns, to consult him so that he may prompt the Prime Minister to make sure that when he discusses matters with the TUC he does not discuss matters which are the proper concern of this House to decide and not for the TUC to decide?

Mr. Short

There is always the closest liaison between the Leader of the House and the Prime Minister.

Mr. Gwilym Roberts

Will my right hon. Friend advise the Prime Minister, when later this week he discusses with the TUC the subject of the Shrewsbury pickets, to bear in mind that there are strong feelings on the Labour benches on this matter?

Mr. Short

I realise that there are strong feelings on this matter. The Prime Minister has agreed to see the TUC to discuss the Shrewsbury pickets because the matter is no longer sub judice. My right hon. Friend has made it clear from the start, and he has made it clear to the TUC, that this is entirely a matter for the Home Secretary. What advice he gives on prerogative is entirely a matter for the Home Secretary alone and is not a matter for the collective decision of Ministers.

Mr. Heath

Since, during the nine months the Labour Government have been in office, under the social contract the rate of price inflation has got worse and not better, the rate of wage inflation has got worse and not better, the number of days lost through strikes has got worse and not better, and the level of employment has got worse and not better, when will the Government introduce an effective economic policy, and what will it be?

Mr. Short

The Government have got an effective economic policy. It is an economic policy which requires the support of everybody in the country, including the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Heath

If the right hon. Gentleman would introduce the economic policy which we propose, we would gladly support him.

Mr. Short

If the right hon. Gentleman wanted to get the country out of its difficulties, he would put his shoulder behind the social contract and not knock it.

Mr. Thorpe

Without dissenting from the right hon. Gentleman's view about the relationship of the Home Secretary with the exercise of the prerogative in the matter of the Shrewsbury pickets, may we take it that the Home Secretary's reply of 13 th November will represent the Government's view when the Prime Minister meets the TUC?

Mr. Short

As I said, this is entirely a matter for the Home Secretary. The Prime Minister has agreed to see the TUC on this matter because these are trade unionists in gaol.