Inward Investment (Hansard, 10 July 1995)

§ 19. Mr. John Marshall
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement about inward investment into Wales. [31458]

§ Mr. Hague
Inward investment into Wales has helped, alongside the growth of indigenous industry, to create a diverse and dynamic economy. The 280 overseas-owned manufacturing companies in Wales employ almost 68,000 people, a vivid testament to the value of inward investment to Wales.

§ Mr. Marshall
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his appointment. He is following a line of distinguished Members of Parliament for English constituencies who have been Secretary of State for Wales, starting, of course, with my immediate predecessor, the right hon. and noble—and distinguished—Lord Thomas of Gwydir.
My right hon. Friend will, I am sure, wish to pay tribute to the work of his two immediate predecessors, who are responsible for the very substantial inward investment into Wales. Does he agree that one reason for that massive inward investment is that we in the United Kingdom boast a low rate of corporate tax and that a tax-raising Welsh assembly would lose that benefit overnight? Has not inward investment into Wales been encouraged by the fact that we have not signed up to the social chapter and do not have a minimum wage? Is he aware that the leader of the new Labour party—

§ Mr. Mackinlay
Get on with it.

§ Mr. Marshall
If the hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay) had been here for question No. 5, I would not have had to take so long.
Is my right hon. Friend aware that the leader of new Labour, speaking to the British people in the Financial Times this morning, admitted in the pink 'un that a high national minimum wage would cost jobs? Does that not show that a minimum wage would lose jobs in Wales and discourage inward investment? Is it not significant that the Labour party is frit this afternoon and does not have the guts to turn up and put its policies forward?

§ Mr. Mackinlay
There are more than a million people in Essex; we want an Essex Question Time.

§ Mr. Hague
The hon. Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay) should not ask for an Essex Question Time when he is sitting in the Chamber but withdrew the question that he had tabled. That takes the prize for bizarre behaviour even in this place.
612 My hon. Friend is quite right. His comments are most perceptive. My predecessors did outstanding work for Wales and it is partly due to them that inward investment into Wales has been so successful, created so many jobs and helped to create a new climate of enterprise and successful business. He is also right that, also partly responsible for that success is the Government's pursuit of policies of low taxation, deregulation, not adopting the social chapter and not having a minimum wage, which would, it will be widely agreed, destroy jobs and reduce investment and job opportunities in Wales as in the rest of the United Kingdom. As my hon. Friend knows, that has often been pointed out by members of the Labour party as well as by Conservative Members.
There is no doubt that inward investment has helped transform Wales; it has become a country with a rich and diverse industrial base, an impressive exports record, enviable labour relations success and a track record of attracting the best in the world. That, however, is not the whole story for the future. Indigenous companies employ the majority of the manufacturing work force in Wales and we want to encourage them, too. Their success, as well as the continued success of inward investment, will be one of my priorities in the coming years.

Mr. Robert G. Hughes
I, also, congratulate my right hon. Friend on his most welcome appointment. Although the Labour party seems to think that he is too young, that perhaps says a great deal about what it thinks of people of 35 or so and under—it clearly has no respect for such people's abilities. Perhaps my right hon. Friend should think of himself as the most welcome new inward investment into Wales.
In his short time in the job—

§ Mr. Mackinlay
He has never had a real job.

Mr. Hughes
That is good coming from an hon. Member who used to work for NALGO—not a lot going on.
Will my right hon. Friend say whether, in his short time in the job so far, he has discovered why the Labour party is so opposed to the policies that have brought the promised £4.5 billion of inward investment, why it has repeatedly opposed the policies of his predecessors and why it has been wrong so often? Could the explanation of Labour Members' absence today be that they are so embarrassed about being wrong so many times and so embarrassed that the economy is doing so well because of the Government's policies that they have nothing to say and would rather stay away? Frankly, I would rather that they stayed away all the time.

§ Mr. Hague
I thank my hon. Friend for his additional words of welcome and for what he said about young people. Although they have not taken the opportunity to speak today, I wonder what signal Opposition Members think they are sending to young people across Britain, including Wales, when they criticise the appointment of a young person to any office. It is an extremely destructive signal, which we should wholly reject, and which usually comes from such people as the hon. Member for Thurrock, who is probably getting on a bit. It should not be up to him to suggest—

§ Mr. Winnick
He has more hair than the Secretary of State.

§ Mr. Hague
The hon. Gentleman may have more hair than me—

§ Mr. Mackinlay
Rubbish.

§ Mr. Hague
In a shock revelation, we have just learnt that he does not have that much. It is no more for him to suggest that I am too young to do my job than it is for me to suggest that he is too old to do his, although his inability to rise to his feet today suggests that he might be getting into that condition.
My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Hughes) asked about the puzzle of the Labour party's attitude towards success in Wales. I use the word "success" in its broadest sense, to mean not only investment into Wales but the recovery of the Welsh economy and the bringing down of unemployment to the United Kingdom level for the first time in 70 years. The puzzle is Labour's attitude—the preference to denigrate anything that succeeds and to criticise anything, whether it be in business or the actions of Government, that brings success to Wales. It would have been nice today to have been able to get from the Labour party an explanation of that attitude, which must be rooted in dogma. It is certainly based on very old-fashioned politics—it is something that we can still associate with excessive public expenditure and the desire to impose excessive taxation and an excessive number of layers of government on people, all of which seem to be the policy of the Welsh Labour party.