HC Deb 06 August 1980 vol 990 cc551-2
Mr. Frank Allaun

I 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 be given urgent consideration, namely, the announcement today that the Salford engineering firm of Sir James Farmer Norton has been placed in the hands of the receiver and is to be offered for sale. In recent years that firm has been much reduced. There are now 320 workers employed at that factory, many of them personal friends of mine, and they are mostly highly skilled.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I know that the hon. Gentleman will confine himself to the three points that I mentioned earlier: urgency, the specific nature, and the importance of the matter.

Mr. Allaun

Certainly, Mr. Speaker. The importance is that many of these skilled men, who are in danger of dismissal, will not return and will be lost to the industry for ever. That would be a tremendous loss to the country as a whole.

This morning I spoke to the AUEW representative for the area, who told me that every morning he is frightened to look at his post because a new announcement of a closure takes place every day. The whole city is being denuded of employment.

Normally, when a liquidator takes over there is a subsequent closure and all those concerned are made redundant. That is what might happen in this case. This is a textile engineering firm, and there is little chance of its being taken over as a running concern because the Government, through their high interest rates, have made the pound overvalued, and the company cannot sell its products. The firm produces textile machinery, and if it falls—along with others on the danger list—the industry will virtually collapse. Therefore, this is a subject that deserves precedence over all other issues today.

Mr. Speaker

I listened with care and interest to the hon. Gentleman, who asked leave to move the Adjournment of the House to discuss the matter of the Salford engineering firm Sir James Farmer Norton, which is now in the hands of a receiver and which is for sale. I have to rule that the hon. Gentleman's submission does not fall within the provisions of the Standing Order, and, therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House.