HC Deb 05 November 1974 vol 880 cc876-7
Q1. Mrs. Sally Oppenheim

asked the Prime Minister if he will place in the Library a transcript of his ministerial broadcast on 14th October.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)

I did so on the 15th October, Sir.?

Mrs. Oppenheim

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the whole country welcomes his apparent conversion to the virtues of veracity? Will he, with all the zeal of a recent convert, now tell the truth about the actual increase in inflation since his Government came to power and about how much the social contract will have cost the country before he is willing to admit that it has failed? Will he admit, with his new-found candour, that much of his election campaign was based on concealment, distortion and deceit?

The Prime Minister

I thank the hon. Lady for her concern. Nothing that I said in that broadcast had not been said by me throughout the election. On the other questions that she has asked, those matters have been fully debated during the past week and I understand that many of her points will be the subject of the debate this afternoon.

Mr. Gorst

Does the Prime Minister agree that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and that, in view of this funny little unwritten arrangement which he calls the social contract and to which he referred in that broadcast, it would be helpful to make a similar arrangement with the CBI, one of the main pillars of which might be a return to the private sector of much that has been nationalised? That would be a quid pro quo similar to the one he has made with the TUC.

The Prime Minister

I answered those questions a week ago. When the CBI met me three weeks ago, its representatives did not ask for the return of Rolls-Royce to the private sector.

Mr. Skinner

Does my right hon. Friend recall that on the day after he made his ministerial broadcast the Leader of the Opposition made a broadcast and went to great lengths to tell the nation that he was Leader of the Opposition four times over? Next time he goes there, will my right hon. Friend drop a hint to the BBC that perhaps it would be in the best interests of the Conservative Party to divide the next Opposition broadcast between the leading contenders, whoever they might be at that time?

The Prime Minister

There is no ministerial responsibility whatsoever for the broadcast on the day following mine.