HC Deb 09 July 1974 vol 876 cc1136-8
Q2. Mr. Adley

asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a copy of the public speech on industrial policy which he made at Huyton on 14th June.

The Prime Minister

I would refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave on 2nd July to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Duffy).

Mr. Adley

In that speech the right hon. Gentleman referred to national priorities. Is not the reality of our industrial relations situation that a coal miner or a Shell oil refinery worker gets what he wants but that a radiographer, a teacher or a nurse must suffer? Is not the right hon. Gentleman's industrial policy now the survival of the strongest? Is that really what the Labour Party stands for in 1974, and is that perhaps why there are beginning to be defections from it?

The Prime Minister

I am glad that the hon. Member is able so succinctly to explain the whole philosophy of Conservative wages policy and Conservative industrial relations. They led, of course, to the three-day working week and the confrontation with the whole trade union movement. Most of the problems from which we suffer today—I shall come to the Stan-low and the Shell workers in a moment—relate to some of the extraordinary reports from and the rigid bureaucracy imposed by the Conservative Party upon the Pay Board, which will soon, of course, be consigned to the lumber room of history.

On the Shell deal, I understand that the situation is a little confused. It has been accepted in one area but not in another, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment is keeping a close watch on the matter. We have noticed before under successive Governments, and stage 3 and the Pay Board are still supposed to be in force, that capital-intensive industries often start a situation by offering a generous wage increase because it does not affect profits or prices very much, and this may be what has happened in the case of Shell.

Mr, Arthur Lewis

As a means of saving the time of the House, and to enable hon. Members to put more important Questions to my right hon. Friend, will he consider arranging always to circulate his speeches, if need be personally and to every Conservative Member, since the Opposition seem so anxious to read them? Such a course would save the time of the House.

The Prime Minister

No, Sir. I think this is a familiar practice. As soon as speeches are made by the Prime Minister they are placed in the Library and Questions follow as quickly as possible there after. But I noticed the ingenuity of the hon. Member for Conway (Mr. Roberts), in whose constituency I shall have the privilege of bidding him farewell when I am up there this week—[An HON. MEMBER: "You are the one who is going."]—because the hon. Member has a very short period to sit in this House. I should like to feel that in that short period he had shown great ingenuity in anticipating these matters by asking me to go there, because he will now know that I am going to his constituency on Friday night.