HC Deb 26 April 1977 vol 930 cc1029-30
Q4. Mr. Skinner

asked the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for 26th April.

Q5. Mr. Corbett

asked the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for 26th April.

Mr. Foot

I have been asked to reply.

Today my right hon. Friend is in the Federal Republic of Germany, where he is visiting British Forces.

Mr. Skinner

When the Prime Minister returns, will my right hon. Friend tell him that if he meets the NUM leaders he will find that they are getting increasingly impatient with the long delay over the construction of Drax B? In his own capacity, will my right hon. Friend assure the House today, as well as the Parsons workers and the others involved in the construction of Drax B, that the interfering Mr. Weinstock's plans to scoop the pool have been thwarted and that the Parsons workers' jobs are not at risk?

Mr. Foot

The Prime Minister, like many of my hon. Friends, including my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner), is deeply concerned about the whole position regarding Drax B and how we are to deal with the situation. I have nothing to add to what was said yesterday by the Secretary of State for Industry, who is having further consultations with the companies and with the National Enterprise Board in order to seek to find a solution to the problem of the restructuring of the industry.

Mr. Corbett

Will my right hon. Friend urge upon the Prime Minister the imperative need to contact the proprietors of the London Evening News and Evening Standard to get them to come clean with the 6,000 workers whom they employ and whose jobs are being bought and sold as if they were pieces of paper and machinery in an attempt to preserve at least one London evening newspaper? Is it not disgraceful that people who hand out lectures on the way industrial relations should work, operate behind darkened doors and windows in this way?

Mr. Foot

I have a great deal of sympathy with what my hon. Friend has said. He is perfectly justified in raising the matter. I think that this afternoon there is to be a deputation led by my hon. Friend the Member for Sowerby (Mr. Madden) and representatives of the unions of the different offices to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, who will describe the legal position in which he is placed. When the Prime Minister returns, I shall seek to discuss the matter with him.

Mr. McCrindle

When the Prime Minister returns will he pay immediate attention to the April unemployment figures, published today, which shows a continuing level of 5.9 per cent. unemployment? Will the right hon. Gentleman, on behalf of the Government, in particular, be bringing forward any proposal to relieve the high number of school leavers who are now unemployed?

Mr. Foot

The level of unemployment is extremely serious. One of the most objectionable features is the number of school leavers who are unemployed, but if the general figure is taken there is a fall in the seasonally adjusted figure which I am sure the whole House will welcome. But that does not alter the fact that the figures are still extremely serious.

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