HC Deb 12 June 1980 vol 986 cc792-8
Q2. Mr. Stanbrook

asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 12 June.

Mr. Whitelaw

I have been asked to reply.

My right hon. Friend is taking part in the meeting of the European Council in Venice.

Mr. Stanbrook

Is my right hon. Friend able to confirm that clause 16 of the Employment Bill, as at present drafted, meets in full the Government's commitment with regard to secondary action expressed at page 10 of the Government's election manifesto? If, as has been pointed out by many people, it does not will the Government look at the wording of the clause again?

Mr. Whitelaw

I think it is fair to put my answer in the terms of the point made by my hon. Friend. Since the publication of the Bill the judgment of the House of Lords in the case of Express Newspapers v MacShane has shown that the legislation of the previous Government created virtually unlimited immunity for secondary action. An immediate response to that was needed and in clause 16 of the Bill the protection of the law for those not concerned in a dispute has been greatly strengthened.

Mr. Kaufman

That is a scandal.

Mr. Whitelaw

The right hon. Member for Manchester, Ardwick (Mr. Kaufman) may think that it is a scandal but it happens to be a fact. I have stated the facts and I cannot see the scandal in that. I should like to make it clear, in reply to the right hon. Gentleman's allegation about a supposed scandal, that my right hon. Friend has undertaken to publish a Green Paper later this year which will review the complicated question of immunities. That is the position and that is my answer to my hon. Friend.

Mr. David Steel

Will the Home Secretary undertake to make sure that the Prime Minister is supplied with a copy of the text of the speech made yesterday in another place by his right hon. and noble Friend Lord Thorneycroft on the proper limits that he believes should be set to pay increases for Members of Parliament? Will he invite the Prime Minister to compare that speech with her own speech yesterday about there being no guiding lights and no incomes policy? When will the sensible people in the Cabinet, such as the right hon. Gentleman, assert themselves in order to ensure that we have a sustained and agreed incomes policy with which to defeat inflation?

Mr. Whitelaw

I am glad to know that the right hon. Gentleman believes that I am sensible. The answer to both of his questions is "Yes. Sir."

Mr. Onslow

Has my right hon. Friend seen the statement by Dr. Sakharov that every spectator or athlete who goes to Moscow for the Olympic Games will be lending indirect support to Soviet military policies? So that there can be no possible excuse for any British athlete or member of the Olympic Committee keeping his head in the sand on this issue, will my right hon. Friend make arrangements for us to have full and accurate information about the atrocities in Afghanistan?

Mr. Whitelaw

At the risk of again causing what the right hon. Member for Ardwick says is a scandal, it would be reasonable to read what the right hon. Member for Stepney and Poplar (Mr. Shore) said on 17 March. I am entitled to read that because I am quoting what the right hon. Gentleman said In short when the Olympic Games commence in July".—[Official Report, 17 March 1980; Vol. 981, c. 50.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. We must be fail all round. The right hon. Gentleman had better paraphrase the quotation.

Mr. Whitelaw

To which I can only say, Mr. Speaker, that after all these years I should have known much better.

I was going to say that the right hon. Member for Stepney and Poplar made it very clear that he thought that, if there were to be an Olympic Games and if it was fully attended, all those who were there would have to realise that the guns of Afghanistan would be ringing in their ears at the time.

Mr. Cryer

Will the Home Secretary have time to ask the Prime Minister to go to the House of Lords to have a word with Lord Carrington who is to produce another meeting of Olympic officials to make a yet further vicious attack on British Olympic athletes? Will he ensure that the Prime Minister asks for Lord Thorneycroft to be present at the meeting, to explain how his £150,000 contract with Lillywhite-Cantabrian for the provision of track equipment for the Moscow Olympics can be squared with his continued attack on the athletes? Is this not yet another case of pure hypocrisy and double standards by Conservative leaders who are busy lining their pockets while condemning athletes for competing in Moscow?

Mr. Whitelaw

This point has been argued at considerable length. Those who are now deciding to go to Moscow must examine whether their actions are in the best interests of their country. That is a decision for them. I do not think that they are in the country's best interests.

Mr. Skinner

What about Thorney-croft?

Mr. James Callaghan

Whether they are or not, will the Home Secretary tell us the difference between athletes going to Moscow and business men—whether Conservative peers or not—increasing their trade with that country?

Mr. Whitelaw

The question of Conservative peers or not does not arise. The question of trade certainly does, but I would have thought that that had also been argued. Many people in this country have said, and will continue to say "Why should we give the Russians the propaganda success of the Olympics in Moscow for no good reason? "

Mr. Michael Shaw

Does my right hon. Friend accept that deep concern is growing throughout the country that the present terms of clause 16 of the Employment Bill are not adequate to satisfy the reasonable and necessary pledges that we gave at the election? In view of the late production of the clause, will the Government look at it once again to see whether they can get it right this time, since it is so important to most of us?

Mr. Whitelaw

I note what my hon. Friend said. I have promised that my right hon. Friend will produce a Green Paper. I shall certainly call to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough (Mr. Shaw).

Q3. Mr. Sheerman

asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for 12 June.

Mr. Whitelaw

I have been asked to reply.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply which I have just given to my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Mr. Stanbrook).

Mr. Sheerman

Will the Home Secretary take time today to confirm or deny the story in the Financial Times this morning that suggests that the Government are about to announce a complete stop—a moratorium—on all local authority capital expenditure which will affect most grievously council building of every type—house, schools and perhaps hospitals?

Mr. Whitelaw

It would be a brave Minister in any Government who spent his time confirming or denying all the stories that appear in the newspapers. I read the story. I know nothing about it. I do not understand what it said.

Mr. Cormack

Does my right hon. Friend know, however, of the Soviet Union (Temporary Powers) Bill that I introduced yesterday? Will he accept that our athletes might be more open to persuasion if the Government accept the Bill which is based on the Iran (Temporary Powers) Act?

Mr. Whitelaw

I note my hon. Friend's comment and I note his Bill. I have nothing further to add this afternoon.

Mr. Robert Sheldon

In regard to the Cabinet meeting that is to take place on 16 July, will the Home Secretary understand that monetarist jargon never sounds convincing coming from his mouth? Will he, rather than repeat this jargon, trust his instinct and accept that the true discussions in these matters is of politics, not phoney economies?

Mr. Whitelaw

It is for the right hon. Gentleman and the House to decide what sounds convincing coming from my mouth. I fully support and am strongly in favour of the policies being followed by Her Majesty's Government at the present time.

Mr. Thompson

Will my right hon. Friend inform the Prime Minister that the Polish Government have instructed their agents in this country not to pay cash for goods, but to offer barter, and often to barter in textile goods, in complete contradiction to the good faith in which those goods were sold to Poland?

Mr. Whitelaw

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I shall certainly see that it is brought to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade. No one coming from my part of the world in the North can doubt the troubles and anxieties that cut right through the textile trade. They are justified. I am most anxious to make sure that anything that can be done to help should be.

Mr. James Callaghan

Will the right hon. Gentleman take note of the letter that has been sent to the Prime Minister asking that any action should be taken to save the textile industry, which the right hon. Gentleman knows so well? Will he also—we shall be convinced by him—in view of the uncertainty and alarm that will be caused by the reports about the halting of council house building, give an undertaking that there will be no such halt, bearing in mind that I million people are now on waiting lists for local authority council houses?

Mr. Whitelaw

On the first point, I understand that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister had a meeting yesterday with various hon. Members about the textile industry. She undertook to follow up the various points that they made to her. In answer to the second part of this question, since I do not accept in any way what was said in the article, it is not for me to comment upon it.

Mr. Callaghan

I am not asking the Home Secretary to comment. I am asking him to give an assurance that the Government have no intention of halting council house building.

Mr. Whitelaw

I have no evidence to the effect that that is so.

Mr. Proctor

Will my right hon. Friend tell the House when the Government intend to honour their election pledge to curtail immigration from the New Commonwealth?

Mr. Whitelaw

We took various measures in the Immigration Rules and I have nothing further to add at present.

Q4. Mr. Foulkes

asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 12 June.

Mr. Whitelaw

I have been asked to reply.

I refer the hon. Member to the reply which I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Mr. Stanbrook).

Mr. Foulkes

Has the Home Secretary read the report given by the Leader of the House to the Bow Group earlier this week and the predictions by industrialists that there will be many more redundancies and liquidations if the Government do not change their economic policies? When will the right hon. Gentleman and the other sensible men in the Cabinet overcome the monetarist fanatics?

Mr. Whitelaw

Of course I read the speech made by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House. I thought that it was a very good speech.

Sir William Clark

Will my right hon. Friend draw to the attention of the Prime Minister the press reports today about the threatened strikes by NALGO? Does he agree that it is disgraceful that trade union leaders should call strikes for the sole purpose of thwarting the wishes of a democratically elected Government on the issue of public expenditure? Does he agree that that action should be condemned by both sides of the House?

Mr. Whitelaw

Trade union leaders are answerable for their actions. If they seek to bring out their members on strike for the purpose my hon. Friend has mentioned, I do not think that they will achieve any good, either in the interests of their members or those of Britain.

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