HC Deb 15 December 1981 vol 15 cc138-9
4. Mr. Skinner

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the latest figure for the number of unemployed persons; and what steps are being taken to reduce this number.

5. Mr. Stoddart

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what further measures he intends to propose to reduce the number of people unemployed.

Mr. Tebbit

The Government are pursuing policies to tackle the underlying causes of economic decline and rising unemployment, among which have been excessive labour costs, restrictive practices, poor profitability, high inflation and a weak currency. More recently, unit labour costs have been rising more slowly, productivity is rising strongly, in October there was the highest monthly increase in industrial output for two and a half years, and exports are doing well. Industry and commerce are becoming more competitive and the prospects for regaining lost markets and, therefore, lost jobs are more encouraging.

Mr. Skinner

Is that not a completely different picture from that which the Secretary of State and his colleagues painted in the general election campaign when they were concerned about the brain drain to America, the Common Market and other places? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, in the sorry mess that the Government have brought about, the Hammersmith jobcentre is now advertising for young people to go grape picking in France and fruit picking in the United States? How does the Minister reconcile that with his statement at the Tory Party conference about getting on one's bike and finding work?

Mr. Tebbit

I do not have to reconcile it, because I did not make the statement in the words attributed to me by the hon. Gentleman.

Mr. Stoddart

Is the Secretary of State aware that propaganda will not solve the unemployment problem? Propaganda is what he has given us today. Is he further aware that Government policies alone have piled home-grown recession on a world recession and caused one of the greatest slumps that Britain has had? Will he now repent and do something real for the unemployed?

Mr. Tebbit

The hon. Gentleman mis-states the position. What he calls propaganda was a list of facts.

Mr. Stoddart

No.

Mr. Tebbit

The hon. Gentleman may not like the facts, but he cannot get rid if them by calling them propaganda. If he believes that the weakness in our industrial practices of the last 25 years, our consistently lower rate of increase in productivity and our consistently higher rate of increase in unit labour costs have nothing to do with the level of unemployment, he is deluding himself and, even more importantly, the unemployed.

Mr. Adley

Can my right hon. Friend confirm, as a fact rather than as propaganda, that unemployment in Britain is now rising more slowly than it is in most OECD competitor countries?

Mr. Tebbit

My hon. Friend is right. That may have something to do with the fact that the percentage increase in wage unit costs from 1970 to 1980 in the United Kingdom was three, four or five times as great as that of our competitors, whereas in the first six months of 1981 it had levelled off and was below the rate of escalation in most competitor countries.

Mr. John Grant

What positive steps or initiatives have the Government taken within the EEC's Labour and Social Affairs Committee to try to tackle unemployment on a Community-wide basis, bearing in mind the representations made by the European TUC?

Mr. Tebbit

I do not believe that the tackling of the underlying causes of unemployment will be achieved in the Social Affairs Committee of the Community. Indeed, if there were any place where the underlying causes would be discussed in the Community, it would probably be among Finance and Industry Ministers. However, we have brought forward many useful initiatives regarding the future of the social fund and how that can be used to alleviate the effects of unemployment and perhaps to give us some pilot schemes for improved job creation.

Mr. Golding

Can the Secretary of State tell us how many redundancies have been notified to his Department as being likely to take place within the next three months?

Mr. Tebbit

I do not have those figures with me. If they are available, I shall do my best to help the hon. Gentleman.

Mr. Forman

Is it not clear that, even with the benefit of the matters that my right hon. Friend has mentioned, as well as the need for a revival Budget next spring, it will take a long time for unemployment to be satisfactorily reduced? In those circumstances, does my right hon. Friend agree that the Labour Party's policies, in so far as one can judge them, would make worse, not alleviate, those problems, bearing in mind the Opposition's commitment to import controls, further nationalisation and massive increases in public spending?

Mr. Tebbit

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I do not know why he referred to one Labour Party. He could have referred to any of the three or four Labour Parties that we now seem to have.