HC Deb 09 December 1980 vol 995 cc770-2
3. Mr. Winnick

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the latest number of registered unemployed in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Prior

At 13 November, the number of people registered as unemployed in the United Kingdom was 2,162,874.

Mr. Winnick

Do not the figures indicate the appalling level of unemployment, including that in the West Midlands, and the human and national tragedy that is involved? Do not all the indicators demonstrate that unemployment will continue to rise sharply? Bearing in mind that the right hon. Gentleman had such a close connection with the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Sidcup (Mr. Heath), would it not be wise to bear in mind his warning to the Tory Party of the connection between the Conservative Party and unemployment?

Mr. Prior

I find myself in agreement with the hon. Gentleman in so far as these are appalling figures. They are the result of 20 years of gradual decline. The same sort of questions as are now being asked of myself and my hon. Friends were being asked 20 years ago when unemployment was 3 per cent. It is now nearly 10 per cent. That suggests to my hon. Friends that the policies that have been pursued in the past, to which some Labour Members ask us to return, would be no more successful if pursued again.

Mr. Needham

Will my right hon. Friend tell the House what he believes are the practical suggestions, if any, put forward by the Labour Party towards curing these terrible figures?

Mr. Prior

As I have said, it has no policies at all.

Mr. Barry Jones

Has the right hon. Gentleman told the Cabinet that further cutbacks in steel will add to the miseries of unemployment in the North and in Wales? Is he aware that many of us on the Opposition Benches are apprehensive about the likely outcome of the current review? What is the right hon. Gentleman doing in the Cabinet on behalf of steel workers?

Mr. Prior

The important thing about the steel industry is that we should sell more steel. If we do that, we can produce more steel. It is in the marketing of steel that the present chairman of the corporation is hoping for and seeking a way out of the serious problems facing the industry. What happens in British Leyland, in the car industry and in the production of consumer durables is reflected directly in the amount of steel that we can produce and, therefore, the number of jobs in the steel industry. That is the crucial element and that is the message that I give to the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friends.

Mr. Gordon Wilson

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that such is the horrific proportion of unemployment in Scotland that the Scottish Trades Union Congress organised yesterday a national convention on the problem of unemployment, which was attended by about 950 representatives of industry, trade unions, political bodies and other bodies? Will he be prepared to meet the standing commission of the convention to listen sympathetically to any proposals that it might care to advance for the amelioration of unemployment in Scotland?

Mr. Prior

Subject to the demands of etiquette in my relationship with the Secretary of State for Scotland, I shall be delighted to meet either the Scottish Trades Union Congress or the standing commission. I am glad that the Conservative Party, including Conservative trade unionists, took part in the conference that met yesterday. I gather that it put up a good show.

Mr. Ralph Howell

I accept that the unemployment figures are unbearably high. However, is my right hon. Friend aware that when I visited employment exchanges that cover his constituency I was told by the managers that about one-third of those who are registered as unemployed genuinely wanted to work and that when I visited North-East labour exchanges I was told by the managers that about 45 per cent. genuinely wanted to work? What is my right hon. Friend's estimate of the percentage of those who genuinely want to work?

Mr. Prior

I can assure my hon. Friend that in my constituency the percentage is a great deal higher than he suggests. I believe that the vast majority of British people want to work. It is a duty of society to seek to provide the maximum number of jobs. I believe also — in this I share some of the anxieties of my hon. Friend — that there are many more in society now who do not mind if they work or if they do not. There are many more who take that view now than 10 or 20 years ago. That should not allow us to forgive or forget the dramatic increase in unemployment in recent years. We must do all that we can to reduce it.

Mr. Varley

Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that by the end of the year he will have presided over the worst and most rapid rise in unemployment of any Secretary of State or Minister of Labour since the early 1930s? I do not believe that he takes any joy from that, but will he confirm that there is a secret report in the Department of Employment that indicates that by this time next year, on the basis of unchanged economic policies, we shall have unemployment reaching 3 million? Does he not regard that as appalling? What will he do to prevent that from coming about?

Mr. Prior

If it was secret, the right hon. Gentleman would not know about it. However, as there is no such report, it is not secret, and I am able to deny that there is such a report. As for the record in the past 20 months, the number of unemployed doubled in the first two years of Labour Government.

Mr. Harold Walker

Then it started to fall.

Mr. Prior

It started to fall very slightly towards the end of that period. However, neither party, nor any Western European country, has succeeded in dealing with the unemployment problem in recent years. Before suggesting the same old policies that failed last time, Labour Members should have a little more patience with the policy that we are pursuing.