HC Deb 27 February 1985 vol 74 cc317-8
3. Mrs. Clwyd

asked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much it has cost to import oil and coal into Britain during the present coal industry dispute; and from which countries these imports have come.

Mr. Norman Lamont

In 1984, imports of coal and oil amounted to £8.8 billion. Figures for each country are published in the December edition of Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom.

Mrs. Clwyd

Does the Minister think that the CEGB is acting legally in running up a £2 billion debt, and how does it intend to finance that enormous deficit? Does he agree that the issue should be debated in Parliament on the basis of figures provided by the Government rather than leaks in the press?

Mr. Lamont

As the hon. Lady well knows, issues concerning the CEGB are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy. I shall not comment on other issues related to the miners' strike, save to express the hope that the hon. Lady will add her voice to those urging a return to work to get this ghastly strike over.

Mr. Neil Hamilton

Would my hon. Friend care to speculate on the cost to British industry of the restrictions imposed on the CEGB for many years with regard to coal imports, and on how many jobs have been lost in British industry because British coal is far too expensive?

Mr. Lamont

Obviously we need an internationally competitive coal industry. Matters such as the CEGB and the coal industry are for my rght hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy.

Mr. Barron

Is the Minister aware that in the last 12 months, because of the dollar-sterling exchange rate, the price of coal imported into Britain for industry has increased by nearly 50 per cent.? Is he further aware that many pits which have been classified by the Government as uneconomic could now be described as economic in view of that expensive imported coal?

Mr. Lamont

We do not want to have to import coal, and we want an internationally competitive coal industry. Opposition Members and Mr. Scargill and their friends seem determined not to protect but to destroy jobs in Britain and to protect the jobs of American, Australian and German coalminers, from whose countries we have had to import coal.

Sir Anthony Meyer

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the aid that the Soviet Union has given to maintain the coal strike in this country has been the best investment that the Soviet Union could have made, as it has enabled it to sell us substantial quantities of coal that it would not otherwise have been able to do?

Mr. Lamont

I note what my hon. Friend has said. The fellow Socialist workers of the Soviet Union and Poland seem to have taken the maximum advantage of the situation, which they obviously do not see as a pre-revolutionary one.

Mr. Wrigglesworth

Does the Minister agree that the tragedy of the present dispute is that our balance of payments could have benefited enormously from increased coal exports had we had security of supply and an increasingly competitive industry, rather than one that is being dragged down at tha tail end by uneconomic pits that are making coal prices too high?

Mr. Lamont

The hon. Gentleman is 100 per cent. right. Inside our coal industry is a successful coal industry trying to get out. This country, with its enormous riches — 300 years' supply of coal — should be exporting coal and using the coal industry as a wealth generator, not as a wealth consumer.