TUC (Hansard, 26 April 1977)

§ Q1. Mr. Cartwright
asked the Prime Minister when he last met the TUC.

§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Michael Foot)
In the absence of my right hon. Friend, who is making an official visit to British Forces in Germany, I have been asked to reply.
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply which my right hon. Friend gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. Corbett) on 3rd February.

§ Mr. Cartwright
When the Prime Minister next meets leaders of the TUC, what kind of Government action will he be able to report on the issues which Lord Allen yesterday described as being essential to create the necessary climate for a phase 3 of the incomes policy, particularly extra funds for the National Enterprise Board, real tax cuts for the low paid and a review of the common agricultural policy?

§ Mr. Foot
We are certainly studying all those questions, which were put to us not only by Lord Allen but by the TUC generally. There is significance in all the different points, and we are studying them all.

§ Mr. Gwynfor Evans
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is more than one TUC and that the Welsh TUC, which met on Saturday, came out strongly in favour of a legislative assembly for Wales?

§ Mr. Foot
I certainly follow carefully what is said by the Welsh TUC on all these matters. We have fully taken into account what the Welsh TUC said on the subject of devolution, and we hope that our proposals will reflect what it said.

§ Mr. Roy Hughes
Did my right hon. Friend find the TUC complaining about the ever-increasing cost of foodstuffs which are largely attributable to the common agricultural policy? Does he agree that it is the poorer sections of the community who are largely affected and are essentially represented by Labour Members? Does he also agree, as presumably he always has done, that our entry into the Common Market was a tragic mistake?

§ Mr. Foot
The Government have had brought to their attention—not that they needed it in that sense—the increases in price which have occurred because of our membership of the Common Market, Certainly that matter has been raised when members of the TUC have come to see us. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will be making a statement to the House tomorrow on this subject.

§ Mr. Adley
As the AUEW has today refused to make the strike at Heathrow official and as the strike has been engendered as a result of the Government's incomes policy, which I have no wish to discuss at the moment, does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the Government would now be doing right by the overwhelming majority of moderate workers at Heathrow in condemning the activities of a handful of militant trouble makers and supporting both the management and the majority of workers who want to get on with their job and not be disrupted?

§ Mr. Foot
I am sure that the sooner the strike at Heathrow can be brought to an end, the better it will be for everyone concerned, including those who have been on strike. We hope that that will happen. I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's account of why the difficulties at Heathrow have arisen.