§ 8. Mr. FishburnTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his latest assessment of the effect on the United Kingdom's long-term economic performance of the proposed European social charter.
§ Mr. FishburnDoes my hon. Friend accept that the best social charter that the country can have is plentiful and, ideally, full employment in the most modern and competitive industries?
§ Mr. RyderI fully agree with my hon. Friend. As he knows. Britain has created more jobs during the past six years than any other country in the European Community.
§ Mr. Chris SmithWas not the Minister really saying in his first answer that Britain under the Tories can survive only by bad employment practices and cheap labour? Have not the other 11 countries of the European Community, with which, I remind the Minister, we have 70 383 per cent. of our trade deficit, realised that completely the opposite is the case, and that a good employment record is a recipe for economic success?
§ Mr. RyderIf the social charter went through as it stands, the first people to suffer and to lose jobs would be women and the unskilled. I imagine that the hon. Gentleman's slogan in Islington at the next election will be, "Back the social charter and create unemployment."
§ Mr. CarringtonDoes my hon. Friend agree that, in view of events in eastern Europe and the potential reunification of Germany in particular, the social charter has now become an outdated irrelevance?
§ Mr. RyderMy right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Sir N. Fowler), the former Secretary of State for Employment, said when he held that post that hundreds of thousands of British jobs would be at risk if the social charter went through. We need no lessons on unemployment problems in this country, because our unemployment is two thirds of the European average.