PRIME MINISTER (OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENTS) (Hansard, 23 October 1975)

§ Q1. Mr. Norman Lamont
asked the Prime Minister whether he will list his engagements for 23 rd October.

§ Q3. Mr. Canavan
asked the Prime Minister whether he will list his official engagements for the remainder of 23rd October.

§ Q6. Mr. Les Huckfield
asked the Prime Minister whether he will list his official engagements for 23 rd October.

§ Q8. Mr. Skinner
asked the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 23 rd October.

§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Wilson)
I chaired a meeting of the Cabinet this morning and will be holding further meetings with my ministerial colleagues and others. This evening I hope to have an Audience of Her Majesty The Queen.

§ Mr. Lamont
Why has the Prime Minister no plans to meet the Governor of the Bank of England, who last week expressed his deep concern about the size of the Government's public sector borrowing requirement? Is it not as a direct consequence of our need to borrow these huge sums of money that our interest rates are now about 5 per cent. higher than in the United States or Western Europe? What does the right hon. Gentleman think that that will do to employment?

§ The Prime Minister
These Questions refer to the engagements that I have today, not to those that I do not have. I met the Governor at Downing Street on Monday.

§ Mr. Canavan
Does my right hon. Friend agree that his most important engagement today is Question Time in the House? Will he try to impress that 708 upon his Cabinet colleagues, especially my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who hardly ever appears at Question Time, and who has been given the important job of negotiating the oil participation? When will he conclude that important task? The negotiations have been going on for almost 12 months, and only five out of 20 companies have come to an agreement.

§ The Prime Minister
My right hon. Friend has answered many questions, but if there is dissatisfaction it is a matter for discussion through the usual channels. It does not arise out of Questions relating to my engagements today.

§ Mr. Michael Latham
The Prime Minister had a meeting with the Cabinet this morning, which he can hardly deny was an engagement today. Did he discuss with the Cabinet the question of public expenditure? If so, what did the Cabinet do about it?

§ The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman, with his long experience in the House, will know that questions about what is considered at Cabinet Committees are never allowed in the House.

§ Mr. Skinner
When my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister sees Her Majesty later today, will he remind her—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Exactly the same convention applies with regard both to Cabinet meetings and to Audiences of Her Majesty. They are not subject to question in this House.

§ Mr, Skinner
As my right hon. Friend will be seeing Her Majesty this evening, will he consider the possibility of putting to her—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. If the hon. Gentleman wants to ask a supplementary question, it must not be directed to an Audience of Her Majesty the Queen.

§ Mr. Skinner
Instead of going to the Palace, perhaps my right hon. Friend will do something much more useful, and take a trip down the corridor to the House of Lords—

§ Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop
And stay there.

§ Mr. Skinner
—and take account of the antics being performed by the Tory geriatrics in that place? Will he also take 709 note of the fact that the Leader of the Opposition is unable to keep her troops here late at night, and is using the other place in order to frustrate the will of a democratically-elected Government?

§ The Prime Minister
Apart from the fact that I am answering Questions only about engagements that I have today, there is, in respect of the House of Lords and in respect of the attendance and other performances of Conservative Members, no ministerial responsibility, I am happy to say.

§ Mrs. Thatcher
Will the Prime Minister today take action on the report of the Price Commission which is out today and which shows very graphically that price increases in the nationalised industries are far greater and are occurring far faster than in the private sector, and that this has nothing to do with the reduction of the deficit, which is slightly higher now that it was? Will he therefore take time to point out to the public what a bad bargain they are getting from the nationalised industries?

§ The Prime Minister
I am interested that the right hon. Lady, in her study of this matter—which does not arise out of my engagements today, but I shall do her the courtesy of replying to her question—has not drawn attention to the many other very interesting facts in the report. Perhaps, at subsequent Question Times, she will take the opportunity of doing so. It was, of course, the policy of her Government—a policy from which she has not yet so far dissociated herself, and which was announced on 17th December 1973 in peremptory terms by the then Chancellor, who is no longer with us—that the publicly-owned industries should set charges at a level to reflect expenses and costs. We are seeing that this is done, and the right hon. Lady is trying to make capital out of the fact that we are carrying out policies to which she was committed.