§ 5. Mr. Woolmerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the latest figures of numbers unemployed in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ 12. Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest number of unemployed in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TebbitAt 11 November the number of unemployed claimants in the United Kingdom was 3,063,026. The trend has been rising less steeply over the last two months and is now lower than in many other countries similarly affected by the continuing world recession. The reversal of the trend depends on the levels 812 of world demand and the ability of United Kingdom companies and workers to compete with our commercial rivals.
§ Mr. WoolmerThose are shocking and appalling figures. Is the Secretary of State aware that in Yorkshire unemployment under this Government has increased by more than 200,000 and that one in seven men and women in that area are now jobless? Is he further aware that under this Government manufacturing production has fallen by 18 per cent., engineering production by 16 per cent., and textile and clothing production by a massive 30 per cent.? Is that not a record of absolute disaster? After four years of disaster, why do the Government not go to the country and let people in Yorkshire and other industrial areas tell them what they think of their record?
§ Mr. TebbitThe hon. Gentleman's final question is a matter that is in the hands of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. I, for one, would have been happy to have an election this month or last month, because it would have wiped the smile off the hon. Gentleman's face.
With regard to the hon. Gentleman's more general questions, I remind him that there was also a sharp increase in unemployment under the Labour Government. Indeed, Labour Governments have always left office with a higher total of unemployment than when they took over. I remind the hon. Gentleman, too, that the world recession and the uncompetitiveness of British industry have had their share in increasing unemployment. We are not going to take the blame for the accumulated problems of British industry in the past.
§ Mr. WinnickI should like now to have the same level of unemployment as in May 1979. Is it not clear that, far from there being any reduction in mass unemployment, all the signs are that there will be more, not fewer, people on the dole next year? Why does the Secretary of State not admit that as long as the Government continue with their policies of deflation, massive redundancies and closures will continue to occur—as they occur daily in the West Midlands—and cause untold injury and harm to British industry and to millions of ordinary families?
§ Mr. TebbitI shall pick on only one of the hon. Gentleman's many peculiar views of the situation. It is really a most juvenile distortion to talk—
§ Mr. WinnickStupid man.
§ Mr. TebbitIt is really a most juvenile distortion—
§ Mr. WinnickStupid man.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. This is no way in which to conduct business in the House. This is the mother of Parliaments. One can dislike what is being said without shouting abuse. There is no need for that.
§ Mr. TebbitIn the spirit of the season, let me withdraw what I said and refer to it only as a distortion of any economics to refer to a policy of deflation when the money supply is increasing rapidly, when Government expenditure is increasing and when prices are increasing at a slower rate.
§ Mr. FormanAs almost four out of five of those polled in the recent Marplan poll said that earlier and flexible retirement was a means of alleviating unemployment which they would welcome, has my right hon. Friend any plans in the near future to extend and expand the welcome job release scheme?
§ Mr. TebbitI note what my hon. Friend has said. We keep all those matters under review. The fact is that the job release scheme has costs. It does not increase the number of jobs in the community, but it may be welcome in the sense of transferring jobs from those approaching retirement, who can go into dignified retirement, to some of the unemployed.
§ Mr. VarleyHas the Secretary of State any word of hope or comfort for the unemployed this Christmas? Will 1983 bring any change in employment prospects? The right hon. Gentleman will recall that before the last election the Prime Minister said that there was nothing inevitable about unemployment. Unemployment then stood at 1.3 million. Now it is well over 3 million. What has gone wrong? What will the Secretary of State say to the unemployed, who are facing the bleakest Christmas since the war?
§ Mr. TebbitThere have been hopeful indications in the past two months. The increase in the number of unemployed has considerably slowed from the higher figures earlier this year, last year and the year before. Some 600,000 people every month find new jobs. By November four out of five of this year's school leavers either had jobs, were in training schemes or were still in schemes of further education. Over the past 12 months the United Kingdom suffered an increase in unemployment of 11 per cent. compared with 37 per cent. in Germany, 56 per cent. in Canada, 39 per cent. in the Netherlands, 32 per cent. in the United States and 17 per cent. in Italy.
§ Mr. VarleyAll that hides the fact that unemployment has gone up by 2 million over the three and a half years that the Government have been in power. If the Secretary of State wants to give a row of statistics, why does he not give these statistics? For example, the tax burden has gone up for everyone other than the very rich; one-fifth of our manufacturing industry has been destroyed and investment has gone down by 33 per cent. since the Government came to office. If the problem is to be solved, and if new hope is to be given by the Government, the only way is to ensure that public spending and public works become the heart of any regeneration.
§ Mr. TebbitThe right hon. Gentleman knows that the policies of massive spending that were pursued by the Labour Government, of which he was a member, increased unemployment. They doubled unemployment and doubled prices— [Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman has had a fair crack of the whip in asking questions. He might now give me a fair crack of the whip in answering them. He knows perfectly well also that the policies that were pursued by the Labour Government doubled unemployment and doubled prices when there was no world recession. He knows perfectly well that such policies are rejected by every Government—Socialist or Conservative—in the industrialised nations of the world. They reject such policies because they know that they would bring disaster.
§ Mrs. Kellett-BowmanIn view of the sadly high unemployment figures, if a firm or part of a firm—[Interruption.]—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I must say to those who are making that noise that if that happened to a lady in their family, they would be ashamed.
§ Mrs. Kellett-BowmanIn view of the sadly high unemployment figures, if a firm or part of a firm is threatened with closure, will my right hon. Friend do all that he can to encourage a management or employee takeover of part or the whole of the firm to preserve a viable unit and to save the maximum number of jobs?
§ Mr. TebbitYes. We want to assist in any way that we can. I notice that there have been some successful management and worker buy-outs of companies. There is at least one company, in which a number of workers are still employed, where there has been a takeover by a co-operative of the workers. I welcome all those efforts.