HC Deb 19 March 1974 vol 870 cc849-54

3.30 p.m.

The Secretary of State for Trade (Mr. Peter Shore)

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a statement.

The House will want to know about recent developments in connection with Beaverbrook newspaper operations in Scotland. The Government view with grave concern this new threat to employment in Glasgow. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection has been considering an application under the newspaper merger provisions of the Fair Trading Act for her consent to the transfer of the Glasgow Evening Citizen from Beaverbrook to Scottish and Universal Investments, proprietors of the Glasgow Evening Times. Discussions have been held with Beaverbrook newspapers about this merger. At this meeting related questions including the future of printing arrangements for Beaverbrook's other Scottish newspapers, the Scottish Daily Express and the Scottish Sunday Express were also discussed.

My right hon. Friend asked for further information in the light of which she hopes shortly to complete her examination of the merger application. At the same time Beaverbrook were asked to think further in the light of discussions which we were told they proposed to hold with the unions about their proposals for printing operations and about their implications. I understand that the talks with the unions have been continuing today.

I am inviting the unions to discuss the situation with my colleagues and myself later this week. I have also asked for a further early meeting with the proprietors.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for making this statement. The Opposition share his grave concern not only about the threat to employment but about the implications for the Press in Scotland. This is an extremely serious matter. It is a bitter blow for Scotland bearing in mind that, as a result of policies of the past few years, we have seen the recovery of the Scottish economy. I believe that in terms of circulation and of advertising Scotland represents a good prospect for the newspaper industry today.

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate the urgency of the matter? Will he confirm that the unions have been told that the papers are likely to close within days? Will he keep us informed of the merger talks which are taking place? Does he realise that such talks do not keep a paper in operation and that the talks do not apply to either the Daily Express or the Sunday Express, which are of considerable importance to Scotland?

Will the right hon. Gentleman take steps beyond the merger talks to see whether there are any other groups within or outside Scotland which would be prepared to keep the papers going? If such steps are possible or likely, will he do what he can to ensure that any closure is delayed?

Mr. Shore

The hon. Gentleman is right to emphasise that our concern is not confined only to the potential loss of jobs in hard-pressed Glasgow, although that is an important concern. Our concern is more than that, as there is always involved with newspapers the range of opinion which may be expressed in different parts of the country and certainly in Scotland. We have that in mind.

We made certain that it was the immediate intention of the management when they met Ministers earlier this week to consult the unions and to reveal to them their minds and their problems. The process of conversation with the unions is going on at present. I am much aware—this is why I am making the statement today—of the distinction between the merger situation concerning the two Glasgow evening papers and the wider question of the whole Express operation based upon Glasgow.

The hon. Gentleman asked whether other newspapers might be brought into discussions about the future. That is among the matters which perhaps can be raised at a later stage when we meet the proprietors. I hope that we shall soon be able to pursue further these matters. I shall keep the House informed.

Mr. Hugh D. Brown

Does my right hon. Friend appreciate that it may seem a little odd that many of our hon. and right hon. Friends are concerned about a group of newspapers which has never had a kind word to say about us? Unfortunately, 2,000 jobs are involved. It is outrageous for any employer to give long-serving employees 10 days' notice of dismissal.

In the initiative which my right hon. Friend is taking, in which I understand he is supported by hon. Members opposite, will he not rule out some form of public participation, if that should be necessary, so as to ensure the viability of what are basically Scottish newspapers?

Mr. Shore

I do not wish yet to develop my thoughts about the possibilities which may exist. That is because I have not had the opportunity of taking part in the first talks with the management and the unions. I hope that those talks will take place very soon. I do not think that I have replied to my hon. Friend's second point.

Mr. Brown

I asked my right hon. Friend not to rule out, if Government money is involved, the possibility of some kind of public participation.

Mr. Shore

That raises large questions which I do not want to go into now. My hon. Friend's first point concerned the relationship in the past between the Express Group and the Labour Party. I do not think that I need bring that into my answer.

Mr. Grimond

I should first say that I am a director and a trustee of the Guardian and the Evening News. Liberal Party agrees very much with what has been said about the concern which must be felt about the closing of newspapers and the consequent unemployment. Will the Minister encourage the newspaper industry to make this an occasion upon which it takes a look at itself? They are notoriously good at turning the spotlight on other people. I believe that the industry would benefit if the Minister asked it to make public its profits, its salaries, its wages, its practices and its costs so that the public may be informed of the background to the closures. In the light of that, the House might have an opportunity to discuss the situation facing the industry.

Mr. Shore

The House will acknowledge that the right hon. Gentleman has spoken some wise words. I believe that there are many problems associated with the conduct of our newspapers. I am certain that if we are to find solutions to them, a large part of that process will come only when the industry has taken a long and serious look at itself.

Mr. Dalyell

For the sake of jobs and, indeed, for democracy, will my right hon. Friend explore the possibilities of taking advantage of the under-used IPC web offset capacity for the printing of the Scottish Daily Express?

Mr. Shore

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning that important technical matter. I can assure him that I shall exclude no relevant matters from the discussions which we shall have.

Mr. Edward Taylor

Does not the Minister appear desperately complacent when we consider this urgent situation? Is it not a fact that the unions have been told that the papers will close on 24th March? Is it not a fact that a merger would be another word for the closure of the Evening Citizen and thereafter the inevitable closure of Albion Street as the building could not be economic without the Evening Citizen? Can the Minister give us an assurance that his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland will be fully involved in these discussions and that they will not be just about a merger, which would be a disaster for the papers?

Mr. Shore

My right hon. Friend has been associated with all our discussions from the beginning, and he will continue to be so associated. I must resist the hon.

Gentleman's suggestion that we have been complacent. We have not been. We have acted immediately, but the immediate and major onus of making decisions on dates lies with the newspaper itself. It is this, among other matters, about which I urgently want to talk to the newspaper, which I hope to do within a very short time.

Mr. Ewing

is my right hon. Friend aware that we on the Government benches appreciate the urgency with which he has tackled the matter? Does my right hon. Friend agree that the problem of the Scottish Daily Express is not peculiar to that newspaper but probably affects many other national newspapers, and that this is a situation which calls for the examination of the monopoly position in relation to the supply of newsprint? Will my right hon. Friend's Department look into that question urgently? Could an examination also be carried out by my right hon. Friend or by another responsible Minister into advertising? Is there not great danger that advertising on local commercial radio stations is seriously damaging both national and local newspapers?

Mr. Shore

In so far as the question of a monopoly in newsprint arises and is relevant, that will come primarily under my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Affairs. My hon. Friend is right to insist that the problem facing in so dramatic a form the Scottish Daily Express may be a more general problem affecting newspapers and that we have to look widely at the questions that this poses for freedom and democracy and the number of newspapers.

Mr. Reid

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that within the last two hours the federated chapels of Beaverbrook Newspapers in Glasgow have been informed by the deputy chairman of the group that in the event of Daily Express properties in Glasgow being sold, any moneys accruing would be paid to a London fund and not to a Scottish redundancy fund? Would the right hon. Gentleman care to comment on the redundancy proposal of two weeks' pay for every year worked which is exactly half what the Beaver- brook journalists in Scotland have been offered on a voluntary redundancy basis within the last two years?

Mr. Shore

No, I would not care to comment now on reports which have been coming in while I have been speak-in. It would be proper for me to study what Mr. Stevens said following his meeting today with the unions and to take account of that when I see him and, I hope, other members of the Beaverbrook proprietorial staff.

Mr. Moonman

I am sure that the unions, including my own, fully appreciate my right hon. Friend's speedy action. Are there not wider issues that go beyond the three newspapers? The view persists that even if the Beaverbrook empire is crumbling, there is no rationale or reason why these three newspapers should have been selected. Is that not worth while exploring?

Mr. Shore

I assure my hon. Friend that we shall look at all the aspects.

Mr. Maude

Although I think that it is probably unnecessary, I place on record the fact that I have a professional though not a financial connection with one of the newspapers in this group. Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that over a fairly long period, when it would have been possible to provide newspapers for Scotland from Manchester with no loss to Scotland, the firm has kept the Scottish offices going at a considerable financial loss so as to keep people employed there?

Mr. Shore

The House listens with respect to what the hon. Gentleman says in these matters because he has a long association with the Press. I cannot quite follow his line of reasoning here. Whatever has been the practice of other newspapers, the Daily Express in the past has found it convenient to maintain a separate Scottish printing establishment for the Scottish Daily Express and other newspapers, and this has had a beneficial effect on employment in printing and newspapers in the Glasgow area. It is the possibility of withdrawing that arrangement that has created the present crisis.