§ Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich)I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
the announcement today of 9,000 white-collar redundancies by British Rail.This is a matter of extreme urgency because British Rail has made it clear that of the 22,000 jobs in the administration division, 9,000 are to go in the next three years. Of those, 2,000 are to be lost in 12 months' time. Although it has been suggested that there are to be no forced redundancies, it is absolutely impossible to believe that it will be possible to reach those targets without compulsion. It is clear that British Jail is following the guidelines laid down by the Minister of State, Department of Transport, who, when he came to my constituency during the general election, said:We have given instructions to British Rail and the result now is to be a 9,000 job loss in the white collar jobs.It is totally unacceptable that that should happen without the House of Commons having the right to debate a matter of such extreme urgency at this time.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that she thinks should have urgent consideration, namely,
the announcement by British Rail of 9,000 redundancies".I have listened with great care and concern to what the hon. Lady has said, and I hope that she will find other ways of bringing the matter to the attention of the House. However, I have to rule that it is not appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 20, and I therefore cannot submit her application to the House.