Wages (Hansard, 1 February 1993)

§ 6. Mr. Flynn
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals he has to increase the wages of the lowest decile of Welsh wage earners.

§ Mr. David Hunt
I always do my best to attract in Wales the sort of investment that will do precisely that.

§ Mr. Flynn
Why does Wales have the highest proportion of low-paid workers of any region in the United Kingdom? Why is it that since the present Secretary of State took office there has been a 6 per cent. deterioration, in relative terms, in the personal incomes of the people of Wales? How long must the Welsh people continue to be the skivvies and drudges of Europe? Does the right hon. Gentleman have any jobs to offer today that are more rewarding than the weekend offer for people to be tied to posts while high-speed trains speed past?

§ Mr. Hunt
I announced today another 614 new jobs. The hon. Gentleman is selective in his use of statistics, and I will give the correct figures. Since I became Secretary of State, wage levels in Wales have increased faster, at 16.7 per cent., than in Great Britain as a whole, where the figure is 15.8 per cent. I wish that the hon. Gentleman would get his facts right.

§ Mr. Jonathan Evans
Is it not the case that in the past week the Confederation of British Industry has referred to a great improvement in terms of orders and optimism in Wales, and in the intention of many businesses in Wales to invest more in training next year even than their English counterparts? Is it not true also that wage levels in Wales will depend ultimately on the success of those particular businesses, which are now demonstrating more confidence than is the case nationally?

§ Mr. Hunt
I agree with my hon. Friend. One has only to look at the headlines of the past week or so, such as Welsh firms much more confident", and Welsh optimism holds on to its record rise", and It has been an encouraging start to 1993, with signs of green shoots all round". —[Laughter.] Those are not my words. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] they are the words of John Smith—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] I am referring to someone whom I will call the enlightened and far-sighted John Smith. He is the John Smith who used those words in the Western Mail. I am, of course, quoting the former Member of Parliament for the Vale of Glamorgan, I quote him again: It has been an encouraging start to 1993, with signs of green shoots all around us. I hope that Labour Members will permit me a moment of reflection, because this is the first time I have ever agreed 11 with a John Smith—not the John Smith who masterminded Labour's election defeat but the man who suffered as a result. It is about time that Labour Members faced the facts and stopped being the merchants of doom and gloom.

§ Mr. Simon Hughes
Will the wage earners of Point of Ayr, Taff Merthyr and Betws see green shoots in the weeks ahead? What representations are being made by the Secretary of State and his Department to the President of the Board of Trade—who was born in Wales—to ensure that the jobs in those pits, and those communities, are still here in the months to come?

§ Mr. Hunt
As the hon. Gentleman knows, I cannot possibly anticipate the results of the energy review and the publication of the Government's White Paper, on which I am working closely with my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade.

§ Mr. Ron Davies
Despite his earlier histrionics, the Secretary of State knows as well as any Opposition Member that Wales has grievous economic problems—the problems of low pay and high unemployment. Surely, one way of tackling the problem of low pay would be to do something about the current appalling levels of unemployment.
Last week, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry made it clear that the coal industry's future now depends on political decisions. Will the Secretary of State give Welsh Members a direct and unambiguous assurance that he will not accept in Cabinet any decision to end mining, and the hundreds of jobs that depend on it at the Welsh collieries—Point of Ayr, Taff Merthyr and Betws?

§ Mr. Hunt
I have already explained that I cannot anticipate the results of the Government's deliberations. I shall certainly not do what Labour did in the 1960s, when it shut many of our Welsh pits, often without providing job alternatives. More than 70 pits were closed in a single year.
I hoped that the hon. Gentleman was rising to agree with his former colleague, John Smith, and to start talking up the Welsh economy instead of talking it down. He has indeed become noted in Wales—as the merchant of grunge.