§ Mr. Tebbitasked the Prime Minister if, pursuant to his reply, Official Report, 17th January 1978, columns 247 and 248, he has yet checked the accuracy of the Department of Employment's statistics concerning unemployment quoted by the right hon. Lady the Leader of the Opposition; and what conclusion he has reached.
§ The Prime MinisterI have looked at the answer given on 17th January. I note that the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson) asked about only four other selected countries. If he had extended his Question to include all OECD countries, the answer would have shown 459W that Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Ireland have higher rates of unemployment than this country. I should add that in the case of the countries other than the United States quoted by the hon. Member for Blaby the statistics used are approximate indicators of unemployment using US concepts.