§ Mr. FieldI beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the unemployment situation in BirkenheadI wrote to you on Friday, Mr. Speaker, indicating that I would seek to move the Adjournment of the House to discuss the long-term future of shipbuilding on the Mersey, which has been put in doubt following the cancellation on Friday of Cammell Laird's only merchant ship building order.My constituents have only once known what it is like to have full employment. As Britain's war effort got under way, Birkenhead went back to work, or perhaps I should more accurately say that some of my constituents went to work for the first time. During the war, Birkenhead did not fail this country. On average, we built two ships every three months.
Now Birkenhead needs the country's help. Hon. Members will know that the unemployment rate for Liverpool is twice the national average. For the country as a whole, we now have one in four of the unemployed classified as long-term unemployed, that is, being without work for more than a year. That rate is equal to the long-term unemployment rate of the peak year of the 1930s.
My constituency has a long-term unemployment rate of 34 per cent. About 8,000 people are waiting for work and there are only 300 vacancies. If shipbuilding is allowed to collapse, as I fear it might following the cancellation of the order on Friday, unemployment will rise still further.
Unemployment should not rise further, because a year ago the Government came to the House and sought agreement for a shipbuilding plan. That plan, which was agreed, had two parts. The first was that we should continue to run down the size of our shipbuilding industry. That has been, and is being, done. In Birkenhead, for every five men who were employed in shipbuilding a year ago, only four remain. 992 The men have fulfilled their part of the bargain to the letter and spirit of the agreement.
The second part of the plan was that British Shipbuilders would seek merchant shipbuilding orders, as it has been trying to do, and that we would bring forward public orders. In Birkenhead, we hoped to get orders—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The reaction of the House has been caused by the fact that the hon. Member should not make the speech that he would make if his application were granted but should merely stress why it ought to be granted.
§ Mr. FieldThere should be a debate now, because we have lost the hoped-for order for fleet oilers and on Friday we lost our merchant shipbuilding order. I seek the Adjournment of the House so that we may discuss what may be happening to Birkenhead. I want to express much more fully the anxiety of my constituents about the prospect of unemployment rising still further and I wish to argue that the Government could, and should, do something to prevent more than the present 8,000 unemployed in my constituency being without work.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely,
the unemployment situation in Birkenhead ".As the House knows, under Standing Order No. 9, I am directed to take account of the several factors set out in the Order, but to give no reasons for my decision.The hon. Member will be aware that I decide not whether this matter is to be debated but merely whether it should be given priority over the business set down for today and tomorrow. I have given careful consideration to the representations that the hon. Member has made, but I have to rule that his submission does not fall within the provisions of the Standing Order and, therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House.