Retail Price Index (Hansard, 22 October 1979)

§ 4. Mr. Dewar
asked the Secretary of State for Trade what is his estimate of the level of the retail price index in six months and 12 months time, respectively.

§ 8. Mr. Heffer
asked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will publish forecasts for the trends in retail and wholesale prices during the next year.

§ Mr. Nott
My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will shortly 7 be publishing an updated forecast for the economy, including the outlook for inflation.

§ Mr. Dewar
Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that very many ordinary people in this country now see inflation as a runaway train? They have absolutely no faith in monetary policy alone as a means of controlling inflation. Will he accept that, whatever reservations there may have been about the Price Commission, at least it was some evidence of an interest in the problem? There is no such evidence of any interest on Government Benches at the moment.

§ Mr. Nott
I agree that it is extremely worrying that the inflationary expectations are so high. However, I do not believe that the system of price controls of the Labour Government had any impact on prices at all. May I remind the hon. Gentleman that all that the Price Commission Act ever attempted was to defer price increases for three months. If he is suggesting that that gave confidence to the British public when, in fact, prices doubled during Labour's five years in office, I fail to see his argument.

§ Mr. Heffer
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the VAT increase has deliberately put up prices and that this Government are responsible for that? It is no good his wriggling on that question.

§ Mr. Nott
Certainly the increase in value added tax has added to the RPI, but I am sure that the hon. Member will recognise that all the indirect increases in the Budget, including VAT, were more than offset by the reduction in personal income tax.

§ Mr. Adley
Does my right hon. Friend think that those hon. Members opposite who have come here, fresh from the triumphs of Brighton, to try to blame the Government for all our economic evils after they have been in office for such a short time, are either fools for failing to remember that we have had five years of Socialist profligacy from which we are trying to recover, or perhaps knaves for deliberately trying to mislead the people about the Government's attempts to equate national earnings with national income? Which does my right hon. Friend think they are—fools or knaves?

§ Mr. Alan Clark
They are all worried about reselection.

§ Mr. Nott
I do not think that hon. Members opposite are either fools or knaves. I think that they have learnt nothing and, as usual, have forgotten everything.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. For the sake of the record in future debates, I wish to put on record my ruling that there are no fools or knaves in this House.

§ Mr. English
Will the Secretary of State explain why he has answered question No. 4 when all he said was that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would give an answer? Does the Secretary of State agree with The Economist, and is he taking action under the Official Secrets Act over the leak about his Permanent Secretary?

§ Mr. Nott
My Permanent Secretary has been an enormous help to me, as I am sure he was to the previous Minister. I saw the article in The Economist. I can only say that I could not be more delighted to answer questions on prices so that I can explain to the House and to the country our appalling inheritance from the last Government.