HC Deb 23 May 1978 vol 950 cc1326-7
Q1. Mr. Goodlad

asked the Prime Minister if he will pay an official visit to Tarporley.

The Prime Minister (Mr. James Callaghan)

I have at present no plans to visit Tarporley.

Mr. Goodlad

Will the Prime Minister accept that were he to make such a visit he would encounter serious concern about recent events in Kolwezi, where so many Europeans have been senselessly slaughtered? In view of the limited and unsatisfactory assurances just given by his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We must have some regard to the Order Paper. Will the hon. Gentleman link his supplementary question, somehow, to a visit to Tarporley?

Mr. Goodlad

Is the Prime Minister aware that if he were to visit Tarporley he would encounter serious concern about recent events in Kolwezi? Is he satisfied that following the defence cuts which the Government have made we have sufficient capability to protect British lives throughout the world as the French have done in Zaire?

The Prime Minister

The hon. Member's supplementary question is totally unrelated to the problems of Tarporley. If, as I had hoped, the hon. Gentleman intended to ask a question about the trunk road A49, or the proposal to close the Tarporley War Memorial Hospital, or the proposed closure of the Oakmere Rehabilitation Centre, I would have been able to tell him—on the last point—that I am glad to say that the proposals of the area health authority to close the centre down will not be approved by the Minister and that this rehabilitation centre will be kept open and its future will be decided again in five years' time.