HC Deb 02 March 1978 vol 945 cc637-8
1. Mr. Canavan

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he next expects to meet the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Merlyn Rees)

Soon. I naturally reckon to meet him regularly.

Mr. Canavan

Will my right hon. Friend discuss with the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality recent reports about the National Front spreading its racialist propaganda in schools? Does my right hon. Friend agree that local education authorities and teachers should be given every encouragement to stop the National Front poisoning the minds of schoolchildren in this way and that school curricula should place more emphasis on the need to encourage young people to adopt healthier attitudes which will lead to better race relations?

Mr. Rees

I think that my hon. Friend is right in what he says. We ought to be careful in attributing a sense of importance to some people in the National Front when they pretend that because in a few places they are outside the schools they are influencing the schools in the country as a whole.

I think that discussion—it depends on the age of the children—of the problem of racial prejudice is important. Most headmasters, headmistresses and teachers understand how to deal with this matter, but it is difficult for them if it is blown up in the Press beyond its real size.

Mr. Mayhew

Will the Home Secretary tell Mr. David Lane that he now hopes to repair the damage done to race relations by his own recent speeches, set out so revealingly today on the centre page of The Times, and that he therefore withdraws his calumnies against my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition and disclaims those of his colleagues?

Mr. Rees

In the last three weeks I have received far more letters on this matter than is usual. Something has happened in the last three weeks to set people writing in a fashion that is not normal. In my view, it was started by ill-conceived and ill-considered discussion on television.

Mr. Sever

Will my right hon. Friend accept from me that the community leaders of minority ethnic groups in Birmingham, particularly those in Ladywood, would like him to convey to the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality their belief that everything that can be done should be done by the Government and their organisation to promote the interests of the minority ethnic groups in the large cities, particularly where those groups feel that the contribution that they are able to make to community life is somewhat restricted?

Mr. Rees

I shall certainly convey the thoughts of my hon. Friend to Mr. David Lane, who is quite able to look after himself. The problem of the inner cities, in a wide sense of the term, as it relates to race relations is an important one. I know that in Birmingham, as in other places and in all parties, people are considering this matter and doing what they can in a very difficult situation.

Mr. Whitelaw

Following what was said by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Royal Tunbridge Wells (Mr. Mayhew), does not the right hon. Gentleman now regret his intemperate and thoroughly unjustifiable remark that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition—these were his words—was making racial hatred respectable? Does he not regret that remark now?

Mr. Rees

No, Sir.