HC Deb 30 November 1993 vol 233 cc912-3
12. Mr. Nicholas Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of the impact upon employment in the United Kingdom of companies moving their manufacturing centres to sites in eastern Europe.

Mr. David Hunt

I agree with my hon. Friend that that is potentially serious, but provided that the United Kingdom remains competitive, it will not happen.

Mr. Winterton

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his helpful, albeit brief, reply. Does he accept that our manufacturing industries are critical to the United Kingdom economy, and does he support the objectives of the all-party Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance launched in the House earlier this year, which believes in free but fair competition, and in constructive deregulation? Will he tell the House what measures and initiatives he will take to improve both education and training to ensure the continued competitiveness of British industry?

Mr. Hunt

First, I strongly agree with what my hon. Friend says about the importance of manufacturing industry. Secondly, the deregulatory effects of the abolition of wages councils will enable manufacturing industry to be even more competitive. Thirdly, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales will confirm, the Government have focused heavily on manufacturing industry in Wales, where output is now 124 per cent. of what it was in 1979, and have done much to reinvigorate industry throughout Wales.

Mr. Bryan Davies

Is it not Government policy that we should compete successfully with eastern Europe and, for that matter, with the Pacific rim countries, by driving down wage levels and worsening terms and conditions in this country?

Mr. Hunt

What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is that the take-home pay of the average worker in the United Kingdom is one of the highest in Europe, and the hon. Gentleman would do well to reflect on the reason for that. Of course, it is because our non-wage labour costs are much lower and much more competitive. Instead of focusing on the subject that he mentioned, he would do better to abdicate from the socialist charter, which the right hon. and learned Member for Monklands, East (Mr. Smith) has signed, to impose a compulsory 35-hour week and a compulsory four-day week, which would be grievously damaging to British industry. It is about time the Labour party dropped that sort of socialist nonsense.