HC Deb 05 December 1978 vol 959 cc1225-7
Mr. Loyden

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the pur- pose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, The closure of the Seel House Press, Liverpool. The item is specific because it deals with Seel House Press, a printing plant, located in the inner area of Liverpool, that, since July, has been working under threat of closure. On Friday the final episode in the Seel House Press history took place when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Industry turned down a deal that had been arranged in the locality to enable that firm to continue in operation, saving the jobs of more than 90 print workers in an area of very high unemployment where the level concentrates at about 28 per cent.

The matter is important because the Department of Industry has been involved in negotiation over Seel House Press, and about £600,000 was committed to it, as part of the original deal, in order to sustain the jobs there.

After £400,000 of the money had been advanced the company decided to close down, thereby failing to fulfil its obligation under the original agreement with the Department to use the money to protect and extend the activities of and the jobs at Seel House Press.

The matter is urgent, because last Friday the first redundancy notices were issued, and there now begins an orderly rundown of the firm.

I do not say that Merseyside is alone in facing the unemployment problem, but the inner city area faces an acute form of it. Under Government policy it is contradictory for one Department to plough into such areas millions of pounds in order to revive them while another Department is deciding not to proceed to give effect to a promise that it made to save lobs. That promise was that if the unions and the Members of Parliament concerned—myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Scotland Exchange (Mr. Parry)—could find a buyer for the place and a backer prepared to operate on a pari passu basis, the Government would uphold their side of the bargain. It is a serious matter when the Ministers behave in this way, when the House is not aware that money has been used for purposes other than those for which it was originally intended.

For those reasons the House should have a short debate on the matter and the Secretary of State should present himself in the House to answer questions.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member for Liverpool, Garston (Mr. Loyden) did me the courtesy of giving me notice before 12 o'clock today that he would ask the leave of the House to move the Adjournment for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely, the closure of the Seel House Press, Liverpool ". I listened with great care to what the hon. Gentleman said. As he knows, it is not for me to decide whether that matter is to be debated. The only question for me is whether it must be debated tonight or tomorrow, and I have to rule that the hon. Gentleman's submission does not fall within the provisions of the Standing Order and, therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House.