HC Deb 16 May 1975 vol 892 c206W
Mrs. Winifred Ewing

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will give an assurance that no part of the equity of British Petroleum held by the United Kingdom Government will be sold to a foreign Power.

Mr. Varley

As I told my hon. Friend the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. Hoyle) on 12th May, the questiou of the disposal of the BP shares held by the bank has still to be decided. However, since we shall need to consider the naional advantage carefully, I would not at this stage wish to rule out any options.