HC Deb 19 October 1982 vol 29 cc212-3
2. Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current percentage level of unemployment in the United Kingdom.

5. Mr. Cryer

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the most recent unemployment figures.

Mr. Tebbit

At 9 September the rate of unemployment in the United Kingdom was 14 per cent. In recent months both interest rates and inflation have been falling sharply. If, by increased productivity and realistic wage bargaining, this progress towards better competitiveness can be maintained, prospects for the creation of new jobs will improve further.

Mr. Taylor

Will the Secretary of State make it abundantly clear that the Government care just as deeply as their critics about unemployment and all the human misery it involves? Will he support public authorities and councils like Birmingham which support "Buy-British" policies, because of the distressing unemployment, and will he defend them against organisations such as the EEC Commission? Is he aware that we have a £4 million monthly trade deficit with the Community in manufactured goods?

Mr. Tebbit

The Government have no less real sympathy for the unemployed than had their predecessors. That is marked by the scale of the programmes to assist the unemployed and to help particularly the long-term unemployed through schemes such as the community programme.

I hope that everyone in this country will look carefully at the goods that they buy, and that where British goods are well made and are at the right price they will buy them. However, it would not be right for local authorities to spend needlessly and overpay for goods that could be bought from our EEC partners at a better price. That would not be in the best interests of the ratepayers.

Mr. Cryer

Have not the Government put 2 million people in the dole queues as part of a deliberate policy to grind people into the dust and to turn workers into nomadic supplicants begging for work from town to town? Are not the Minister's claims about competitive aids to British industry unjustified when the textile industry, for example, has adopted new measures and invested and yet is losing jobs by the thousand every month? Is it not time that the Government changed their policies to stimulate demand and enable manufacturing industry to recover?

Mr. Tebbit

The answer to all the hon. Gentleman's questions is "No, Sir".

Mr. Needham

Would not the alternative strategy proposed by some Opposition Members increase inflation, interest rates and, fairly quickly thereafter, unemployment?

Mr. Tebbit

Yes. My hon. Friend is right. He does not merely have to accept my word. The right hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) told the CSEU conference at Eastbourne on 30 June 1978: Inflation is the main enemy … you have a responsibility for your own jobs … inflation is the mother and father of unemployment. All the programmes put forward by the Opposition would increase inflation and thus, in their own words and conviction, increase unemployment.

Mr. Varley

The right hon. Gentleman originally mentioned future prospects. When does he expect the Government's policies to change, as outlined, for example, in speeches at fringe meetings during the Tory Party conference by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food?

Mr. Tebbit

I do not think that one would expect Government policies to change. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman can attend some of his party's fringe meetings, such as those when they fiddle the votes in the NEC elections.