§ Q1. Mr. ChisholmTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. John Major)This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.
§ Mr. ChisholmIs the Prime Minister aware of a report by Age Concern, trailed in this morning's newspapers, which reveals that 750,000 elderly people are at risk of developing hypothermia this winter? Now that the Government have launched a winter warmth telephone line, what reply will be given to the large numbers of people requiring help with fuel costs and insulation? The Prime Minister has spent £7.6 million—
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. I remind the House that this is Question Time, and I expect questions rather than long statements.
§ The Prime MinisterI seem to recall that when the Labour Government were in power, there was no assistance with heating matters whatever. I will study carefully the article that was in the press this morning, and so will my right hon. Friend.
§ Q2. Mr. James HillTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. HillDoes my right hon. Friend agree with the views expressed by the president of the Confederation of British Industry and many other leaders of industry in Monday's edition of The Times—that it is absolutely essential for the good of our economy that we ratify the Maastricht treaty?
§ The Prime MinisterI am grateful to my hon. Friend. I agree with those views expressed by British business. I think that business knows that our self-interest is inextricably bound up with our membership of the European Community. I believe that our business leaders are as well aware of that as anyone, for they will know of the huge flow of trade between ourselves and the European continent.
§ Mr. John SmithWhen the Governor of the Bank of England tells foreign journalists, as he did yesterday, that there is a vacuum at the heart of the Government's economic policy, is not that a telling revelation of the Government's economic incompetence?
§ The Prime MinisterOf course that is not remotely what the Governor of the Bank of England said yesterday. When he spoke of being uncertain about the real state of the economy, he echoed the words also used by the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve about the United States economy, and the thoughts of many people throughout the world about the present international situation.
§ Mr. SmithDoes not the Prime Minister recollect precisely what was said by the Governor of the Bank of England:
I feel more uncertain about the real state of the economy than at any time I can remember"?He went on to say that that uncertaintyhad compounded the sense of policy vacuum created by leaving theERM." If there is no vacuum, why does the Governor think that there is one?
§ The Prime MinisterI responded to that point a moment or so ago and the right hon. and learned Gentleman may care to look back at that. The Governor was making the eminently sensible point that has been echoed by other people elsewhere that it is extremely difficult to forecast at present, both domestically and in the international economy. The right hon. and learned Gentleman should understand that, as should every Member of the House.
§ Mr. SmithThe Prime Minister cannot dodge the fact that the Governor said that there was a vacuum at the 143 heart of the Government's economic policy. Is there or is there not a vacuum? If there is not, why does the Governor say that?
§ The Prime MinisterThere is no vacuum at the heart of the Government's policy whatsoever. The right hon. and learned Gentleman was one of the foremost supporters of our membership of the exchange rate mechanism at one time. He supported it when we entered it, at the rate we entered it and he stayed with it right the way through to the end. His post hoc revelations at the moment will cut no ice with anyone. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor set out with great clarity at the Mansion House and before precisely how the economy is managed.
§ Sir Richard BodyWill my right hon. Friend have time today to study the remarks of Mr. Martin Bangemann to the effect that the Maastricht treaty is a fundamental step towards a federal union? Has my right hon. Friend any reason to doubt that?
§ The Prime MinisterYes, I have seen Mr. Bangemann's speech and very silly and ill-informed it is too. Mr. Bangemann, an official, had no part in the discussions at Maastricht, Lisbon or Birmingham. His speech, frankly, is wrong and my hon. Friend may be interested to know that the Commission has already made it absolutely clear that those were personal remarks by Mr. Bangemann and they do not reflect the views of the Commission. Nor, can I assure my hon. Friend, are they my views, the views of this Government or the views of any mainstream Government in Europe.
§ Mr. Ashdownrose—[Interruption.]
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. No one enjoys a robust House more than I do. However, that is going over the top.
§ Mr. AshdownIs it not the case that those who tomorrow night vote to damage Britain's future in Europe, vote to do more damage to the economy, to stop inward investment and to make sure that thousands more people in Britain pay for that with their jobs?
§ The Prime MinisterI agree with the right hon. Gentleman. There was a time when the Leader of the Opposition said that he had
always believed that Britain's future lies in Europe, and that we must take a confident and leading role in the … Community".His idea of taking a leading role now is to hide behind the Danes or anyone else to hide the split in his own party. The reality is that this country exports £60 billion worth of manufactured goods to the European Community. It receives £17 billion worth of inward investment as a result of our membership and last year an independent survey showed that two thirds of non-European—[Interruption.]
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. The House must come to order so that we can hear what the Prime Minister has to say.[Interruption.] Order. All corners of the House must come to order.
§ The Prime Ministerrose—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SkinnerThat was a planted question.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. I call the Prime Minister.
§ The Prime MinisterI think that the whole House will know that they are shouting to hide their confusion and embarrassment. I repeat that an independent survey 144 showed that two thirds of non-European investors came to this country for jobs in Scotland, Wales, the north-east and elsewhere precisely because of our membership of the European Community.
§ Mr. BellinghamWill my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister turn his attention today to the Maxwell pensioners, many of whom reside in west Norfolk? Will he welcome with me the announcement by our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security that an extra £100 million will be available? Does my right hon. Friend agree also that no effort must be spared in trying to locate the missing funds?
§ The Prime MinisterI can certainly agree with my hon. Friend about that and congratulate my right hon. Friend the Social Security Secretary on the lead that he has taken in this whole matter.
§ Q3. Mr. HainTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. HainWill the Prime Minister personally halt the proposal from the chief executive of Swansea's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to contract out more than 3,000 jobs, many of them to be relocated from Wales to England, or is he so paralysed by the Government's crisis that his response will be from "Spitting Image", "Oh dear, dunno mate"?
§ The Prime MinisterThe best I can say about the hon. Gentleman's question is that it is worthy of him.
§ Q4. Mr. BurnsTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. BurnsDoes my right hon. Friend agree that the increasing pressure of bogus asylum seekers is placing great trouble not only on this country but right through Europe? Is he aware that Chancellor Kohl might seek to introduce curbs on bogus asylum seekers in the same way as we did yesterday? Is not that yet another example of other countries following the United Kingdom lead?
§ The Prime MinisterI agree with my hon. Friend on both his propositions. The number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe has more than doubled in the past three years, but only a very small proportion of them are found to be refugees as defined by the convention. There is not a problem just for this country, it is a problem which all European countries are anxious to deal with; and it is why in this country we decided to reintroduce the Asylum Bill. Other countries will be taking their own measures, as my hon. Friend has said.
§ Q5. Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 3 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. HinchliffeDoes the Prime Minister share my concern about the future of Kenneth Clark, a constituent of mine who later this month will lose his job after 42 years' service at the British Jeffrey Diamond Mining 145 Engineering company in Wakefield? Is the Prime Minister aware that there is no £37,000 compensation for Mr. Clark, merely a few months' equivalent of wages? Can he advise me what I should say to Mr. Clark? What is his message to Mr. Clark and the thousands of other people who are not miners but who are losing their jobs in industries such as mining engineering directly because of the lunatic policies being pursued by the Government in respect of the coal industry?
§ The Prime MinisterThe hon. Gentleman knows that difficulties about employment exist not only in this country, not only in the mining industry but all around the world. The hon. Gentleman will also know the various packages of assistance that are made available, not least the remarkable assistance available through the training and enterprise councils which has been enlarged and improved by this Government.
§ Mr. BrazierDoes my right hon. Friend agree that there is no greater threat to racial harmony in a country than the fear of unrestrained illegal immigration and that the measures that we introduced yesterday to restrain bogus asylum seekers are in the best interests not only of the country as a whole but of people in racial minorities already living here and of genuine asylum seekers?
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. That question is a bit long for Question Time.
§ The Prime MinisterI do agree with my hon. Friend about that. There is no doubt that good race relations in this country depend on removing unnecessary and unrealistic fears. That does mean strong immigration control and it does mean that we have the right asylum policies.
§ Q6. Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday, 3 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman [Interruption.] the hon. Lady—to the answer that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyI know that the Prime Minister suffers from some confusion, but I hope that he can tell the difference between the sexes.
May I ask the Prime Minister what answer he will give to those of my constituents working for British Rail who now risk losing their jobs because of rail privatisation? Or does he intend to treat them in the same way as the other 5,000 of my constituents who have lost their jobs in less than two years, to give my area the fastest unemployment growth rate in the north-west?
§ The Prime MinisterI apologise to the hon. Lady. At the outset, in the noise, I had not heard who was being called. I offer my apologies to her for any discourtesy on that point.
On the substantive point of British Rail privatisation, we are seeking with this privatisation, as with the privatisation of other formerly public services, to improve the service to the public and to ensure that it is as good as can be provided for the amount of money that can be made available to it—the right policy for the Government to follow in both British Rail and other public services.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. Time is up.[Laughter.] Order. Will the House settle down?