HC Deb 12 December 1974 vol 883 cc742-3
3. Mr. McCrindle

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the value of the pound at the latest date for which figures are available assuming it to be 100p on 18th June 1970 and 28th February 1974, respectively.

The Minister of State, Treasury (Mr. Robert Sheldon)

Sixty-four and a half pence and 90p respectively. These estimates are based on movements in the General Index of Retail Prices between June 1970 and October 1974 and between February 1974 and October 1974.

Mr. McCrindle

Does the Minister recall the days of 1972 and 1973 when his hon. Friends were berating the then Conservative Government over the fall in the value of the pound and promising better things to come? In the light of the figures that the Minister has just supplied, may I ask whether there has been a change of heart or a change of policy on the part of the Government? If not, when we can expect the things that we were promised in 1972 and 1973?

Mr. Sheldon

Unfortunately, the decline in the value of the pound is not something which has happened just over the last few months; it has been a continuing factor which has bedevilled British economic policy for many years. The Government are determined to take action at least to reverse that particular situation.

Mr. McCrindle

What action?

Mr. Ridley

Does not the Minister agree that the level of the borrowing requirement has a direct correlation with the subsequent rate of inflation? In that case, is not the Government's policy in planning for a borrowing requirement of £6,300 million to say the least negligent, and, to say the worst, trying to destroy the British economy?

Mr. Sheldon

The hon. Gentleman is quite right when he says that the borrowing requirement is high, and this is accepted by the Government. But the important thing in this connection is the way in which it is being financed. The way in which it has been financed will at any rate, I should have thought, give some consolation to the hon. Gentleman that it is not causing the large increase in the money supply which we saw on previous occasions.