§ Q2. Mr. Litterickasked the Prime Minister if he plans to visit Birmingham in the near future.
§ Q3. Mr. Rookerasked the Prime Minister if he has any plans to visit Birmingham.
§ The Prime MinisterI have at present no plans to do so.
§ Mr. LitterickWill my right hon. Friend accept my assurance that his answer will be widely regretted in Birmingham, particularly by the laboratory technicians who are now involved in a dispute with the management of Birmingham University—a dispute that is entirely due to the obdurate refusal of the management to implement a national agreement? Will the Prime Minister consult the Lord Privy Seal about inviting the Queen, in her capacity as visitor to the university, to institute an inquiry into the administration of the university, which is being negligently mismanaged?
§ The Prime MinisterThis is a strange situation, where a dispute over five or six days' annual leave has provoked a strike that has now lasted for five months. I do not intend to apportion responsibility in this dispute any more than I would in any other industrial dispute, but with all the resources that have been made available in one form and another it should be possible to find a mechanism to resolve the dispute without involving Her Majesty.
§ Mr. RookerIf my right hon. Friend visits Birmingham, will he see the vice-chancellor of the university and tell him that it is incompatible with enlightened management in the twentieth century to use violence against official pickets, including young females, to cause injury and to use blackleg labour to break an official strike? Will my right hon. Friend consider instituting a full and deep-searching public inquiry into the running of Birmingham University?
§ The Prime MinisterI do not want to give an answer now about a deep-seated inquiry into the running of the university. Apart from this dispute I have no evidence of anything being wrong, although I have not studied in depth the running of this institute of learning.
If there are allegations of criminal action by the police, Section 64 of the Police Act 1964 should be used. My hon. Friend should put Questions to the Secretary of State for Employment if there are allegations of the improper breaking of picket lines.
§ Mr. EyreI recognise that the Prime Minister has other heavy obligations, but will he arrange to visit Birmingham as early as possible next week and to hold a public meeting at the Saltley gas works? Will he invite Birmingham housewives to consult him about the fantastic rise in prices and the appalling fall in living standards with inflation running at 21 per cent.? Will he explain to them why the Government have no faith in the Price Commission and why they have, by diktat, imposed an extra tax on gas users?
§ The Prime MinisterI cannot undertake to go to Birmingham next week, but I shall not hesitate to explain to housewives that our economic policy must be regarded as a whole. I shall explain that as a result of action by the Government confidence in sterling has been restored, the balance of payments is going in the right direction, and industrial production in the last quarter has moved up by 1½ per cent.—although I shall not fall into the habit of the Opposition and multiply that by four in order to obtain an annual figure. I shall also tell housewives that the minimum lending rate for borrowing is now well below what it was when we came into office. I shall explain all these matters and indicate to the housewives of Birmingham and everywhere else that the Government's economic policy stands as a whole and will bring us through to success.
§ Mrs. ThatcherWill the Prime Minister now answer my hon. Friend's question? Why, while the Prime Minister rightly stresses that it is important not to breach phase 2 of the Pay Code, is he nevertheless prepared for the Government to breach the Price Code by raising the price of gas, as they intend to do?
§ The Prime MinisterThis matter was discussed in the House yesterday and no doubt it will be discussed again. There is no breach in this matter. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced this in December last year and the Opposition did not take it up. There has been neither a breach nor any covert action. Unlike the situation that existed when the Opposition were in power, when the gas industry was allowed to drift into subsidy, when prices were kept down artificially and the nationalised industries ran into debt, this is a case in which the nationalised gas industry, like others, has 214 been rescued from the Opposition and is able to pay its way. The money will be used for the benefit of gas consumers.
§ Mrs. ThatcherIf the Price Code has not been breached, why is the increase not allowable under it?
§ The Prime MinisterThe increase is not allowable under the Price Code within the rules that are laid down. [HON. MEMBERS: "Humbug."] Opposition Members are the last people who should shout "Humbug". We have brought the matter to the House and we shall ask the House for its confirmation of what we are doing. If the House refuses that confirmation it will destroy a part of the economic package as a whole. It is easy for the Opposition to pick out an individual item, but the policy is part of a whole. It is succeeding and will continue to do so.