HC Deb 28 February 1978 vol 945 cc229-30
13. Mr. Rifkind

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many officials in his Department are responsible for dealing with measures to reduce unemployment in Scotland.

Mr. Golding

The number of staff employed on the measures to reduce unemployment in Scotland which are directly administered by my Department is 22.

Mr. Rifkind

Does the Minister realise that it is now four years to the day since the Labour Party won the last General Election on the slogan Back to work with Labour."? Now that the level of unemployment in Scotland and throughout the United Kingdom is higher than at any time since the 1930s, should not the Government admit to the British public that they cruelly deceived them?

Mr. Golding

The Labour Party has not deceived the people of Scotland. The Labour Government have worked hard, through special measures, to reduce the incidence of unemployment in Scotland.

Mrs. Bain

Irrespective of the number of people employed at the Department dealing with measures to reduce unemployment in Scotland, may I ask the Minister whether he accepts that the doubling of unemployment figures since February 1974 is totally unacceptable? Does he agree that the solution to the problem lies in bringing forward a reflationary Budget which will expand Scotland's manufacturing base, which has declined by 9.3 per cent. since the Government came into office?

Mr. Golding

I agree that the unemployment figure is unacceptable. The level of reflation must depend upon how much inflation the people of Scotland will be prepared to suffer.

Mr. Teddy Taylor

Is the Minister not ashamed that, despite being elected in February 1974 on a pledge to reduce unemployment—I have that pledge here—the jobless total in Scotland has almost doubled, to 200,000? Since the Government's policies are clearly not working, may I ask whether the Secretary of State for Employment would be willing to hold a special convention in Scotland of small and large firms, to take their advice on the way in which investment might be improved and employment increased?

Mr. Golding

The Labour Party manifesto is one of those documents that I do know about. What was very clearly said in the manifesto was that the first priority would be given to the fight against inflation.