HC Deb 11 March 1986 vol 93 cc797-8
10. Mr. Franks

asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will pay an official visit to Vickers shipbuilding yards.

Mr. Norman Lamont

My right hon. Friend hopes to do so when it can be fitted into his programme.

Mr. Franks

Will my hon. Friend note that, when he and/or my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State pay a visit to the shipyards in Barrow, they can be assured of a warm welcome from a company which has been returned to the private sector, with local management and local employees? Will my hon. Friend note that the welcome will be that much the warmer if my colleagues take the opportunity when they visit to announce the signing of the first contract for Trident submarines?

Mr. Lamont

I note what my hon. Friend says. I know that he very much welcomed the announcement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. My hon. Friend may recall the 1974 Labour manifesto, which referred to an irreversible shift of wealth and power to working people. That is what is happening at the Barrow shipyards.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

Would not jobs in Barrow and in Cumbria as a whole have been much better safeguarded if Vickers had been retained in the public sector? What assurances can the hon. Gentleman give the House that thousands of jobs will not be lost in Barrow as a direct result of this privatisation?

Mr. Lamont

It is for the hon. Gentleman to give assurances about jobs, because everyone in Barrow wants to know how the Labour party will maintain employment in Barrow if it is going to cancel Trident and if, at the same time, it says that it will not increase spending on conventional defence.

Mr. O'Neill

Before the hon. Gentleman goes to Barrow will he look again at Friday's statement by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry? Will the money which is supposed to be saved by this profit-sharing deal, which is an integral part of the management buy-out, go to the Treasury, or to the Ministry of Defence?

Mr. Lamont

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is to answer another written question, when he will amplify what he said in his statement on Friday. As the hon. Gentleman knows, matters relating to the privatisation of Vickers are for the Department of Trade and Industry.

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