HC Deb 13 June 1977 vol 933 cc31-3
Mr. Mike Thomas

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the decision of the Secretary of State for Industry to announce his new policy for the future of the power plant manufacturing industry to the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions on 2nd June during the recess, his failure to make a statement to the House on this important matter today, to clarify the status of a letter written to him by Lord Ryder on 4th May and to explain the reasons for the nature of his Press briefing on 9th June after his subsequent meeting with the CSEU. This matter is specific. It relates to two meetings held between the Secretary of State for Industry and the CSEU on 2nd and 9th June. It relates also to a letter produced at those meetings from Lord Ryder, the Chairman of the National Enterprise Board, and to Press briefings given by the Department of Industry after those meetings.

It is important because the future of a major British industry, the British power plant and turbo-generator industry, is at stake, because the Secretary of State announced the new policy of the Government during the recess, and because it is vital to 15,000 people in the North-East of England and about 10,000 people in Scotland who work in or supply the turbo-generator industry.

The matter is urgent because it is right that this House should expect the Secretary of State, at the first opportunity after such major and dramatic developments, to report them to the House. It is urgent also that conflicting reports about two matters are resolved speedily. The first is the question of Lord Ryder's letter of 4th May, which purports to argue that GEC should be allowed to take over C. A. Parsons Ltd. in my constituency and that that is the policy of the National Enterprise Board, when senior trade union members of the NEB have said that it has no such policy and that they dissociate themselves from Lord Ryder's letter.

It is also important that the nature of the briefing given to the Press by the Department after the meeting of 9th June with the CSEU be cleared up, for two reasons. First of all, some newspapers reported after the meeting that the Confederation had agreed to a GEC takeover of C. A. Parsons Ltd., when—this is the second reason—the following day and in statements after that meeting that very night, Confederation spokesmen specifically denied that that was the case and made it clear that they had entered into no such agreement with the Secretary of State.

On those grounds—that the matter is specific and vital and that it is urgent that the House hears from the Secretary of State at the earliest possible moment; 3.30 this afternoon was his first and proper opportunity—I believe that we should debate the matter, so that the Secretary of State will have to tell the House exactly what he is up to.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Thomas) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter which he believes should have urgent consideration, namely, the decision of the Secretary of State for Industry to announce his new policy for the future of the power plant manufacturing industry to the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions on 2nd June during the recess, his failure to make a statement to the House on this important matter today, to clarify the status of a letter written to him by Lord Ryder on 4th May and to explain the reasons for the nature of his Press briefing on 9th June after his subsequent meeting with the CSEU. As the House knows, under Standing Order No. 9 I am directed to take into account the several factors set out in the Standing Order but to give no reasons for my decision. I have given careful consideration to the representations of the hon. Member, but I have to rule that his submission does not fall within the provisions of the Standing Order and that therefore I cannot submit his application to the House.