HC Deb 30 November 1989 vol 162 cc829-30
8. Mr. Hayward

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the growth in employment over the last five years.

Mr. Lilley

Total employment has increased by 2¾ million since 1983.

Mr. Hayward

I welcome that excellent news. Does not my hon. Friend find it amazing that whereas the Labour party complains about small numbers of job losses, when it comes to the creation of 2,500 jobs at Grangemouth or the announcement of new research and development jobs with Nissan, it fails to welcome that news—especially when the hon. Members for Dagenham (Mr. Gould), for Norwich, South (Mr. Garrett) and for Bradford, South (Mr. Cryer) have previously complained that most of the jobs available in Japanese car manufacturing plants are screwdriver jobs?

Mr. Lilley

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. One of the Opposition's most distasteful characteristics was the ghoulish pleasure that they used to derive from rising unemployment. Now that it is falling, they are totally silent. Of all the questions on the Order Paper put down by the Opposition, there is not one that deals with the excellent fall in unemployment in this country.

Mr. Win Griffiths

Can the Financial Secretary confirm that—despite the sudden rise in employment that has occurred in the past couple of years—Wales, the west midlands, the north-west, Yorkshire and Humberside, the north and Northern Ireland still have fewer people in employment than they did in 1979, and that almost 1 million men are unemployed?

Mr. Lilley

Unemployment is falling in almost every region, and last year it fell fastest in the north. That is good news, and it should be welcomed by every hon. Member.

Sir Peter Tapsell

In view of the Government's great success in guiding the British people back towards conditions approaching full employment over the past two years, may I express the hope that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will resist the continuing requests from teenage City scribblers for ever higher interest rates, which would provide the country with only a short-term currency advantage and would put the real economy and employment prospects at risk?

Mr. Lilley

My right hon. Friend has made very clear which factors he will take into account in determining interest rates. I am happy to say that they do not include teenage scribblers—although I was once one myself.