HC Deb 12 December 1974 vol 883 cc763-4
Q4. Mr. Spriggs

asked the Prime Minister when he last met the Chairman of the British Steel Corporation.

Mr. Edward Short

I have been asked to reply.

My right hon. Friend's last formal meeting with the Chairman of the British Steel Corporation was on 3rd July 1974, when he chaired a meeting of the National Economic Development Council.

Mr. Spriggs

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, since that meeting took place with the Prime Minister, Mr. Christopher Chataway—who has left the Conservative benches to become a political agent of the Tory Party on the mass media—has used the opportunity to get at the Chairman of the British Steel Corporation and that, in turn, the Chairman of the BSC has agreed that equity should be sold on the private market? In view of that undertaking given by the Chairman of the BSC, will my right hon. Friend take the earliest opportunity of replacing him by a man on whom we can rely?

Mr. Short

I not only read but saw the interview. I make no complaint about Mr. Chataway, who was doing his job as an interviewer, but neither my right hon. Friend nor I agree with what Dr. Finniston said. Dr. Finniston holds those views and is perfectly entitled to express them, but we do not agree with them.

Mr. Pardoe

Will the Lord President request the Prime Minister when he meets the Chairman of the BSC to ask what are his plans for the conservation of energy in the British steel industry? Will he ask the chairman whether he recognises that the industry is a mass consumer of electricity, and what plans he has to reduce the industry's extravagant consumption of that commodity?

Mr. Short

That is an extremely constructive suggestion, which I shall pass to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy.

Mr. Peyton

I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be able to find something in his mind to quench the indignation of the hon. Member for St. Helen's (Mr. Spriggs). Does not the right hon. Gentleman think it would be seemly for the Government to take note of the opinions of Dr. Finniston, who, after all, is in a better position than is the Minister to judge the inadequacies of the system of nationalisation?

Mr. Short

I do not think that Dr. Finniston was suggesting selling it off because of its inadequacies, but rather because of its success.