Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

General Election Press Conference

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Conservative Central Office, Smith Square, Westminster
Source: (1) Thatcher Archive: CCOPR extract GE770/79 (2) BBC Radio News Report 1800 30 April 1979
Editorial comments: Marked for immediate release. Sir Geoffrey Howe, Jim Prior and Michael Heseltine also featured.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 738
Themes: General Elections, Labour Party & socialism
(1) Thatcher Archive: CCOPR (GE770/79)

THE CONCORDAT

Mr James Prior, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Lowestoft, and the Conservative Spokesman on Employment, said:

“We have the so-called Concordat in operation today, or so we are told, and yet troubles are continuing in British industry, and particularly in the public sector. So the very fact of having a Concordat—on which Mr Callaghan has pinned all his hopes for the future in trying to get industrial peace—has not, from the point of view of the public sector (where the Government is the employer), had the slightest influence on the attitudes of individual unions. I'm quite certain that the problems of the public sector, which have become very much more servere in the last year or so, are very much bound up with the fact that we've had no prosperity for five years, we've had no increase in real wealth, and there is enormous frustration.”

FACE-TO-FACE WITH MR CALLAGHAN

Mrs Margaret Thatcher explained why a face-to-face television appearance with Mr Callaghan would not have helped the electors to decide:

“I have been face-to-face with Mr Callaghan for three years in Parliament, and I've never got a straight answer to a straight question yet. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. We have fought a straightforward and positive campaign about the future of Britain. He has not. I was determined to do this because I think that what matters is the policies that we are going to put into effect in the next five years. I still continue to fight that campaign despite the kind of campaign fought by the Labour Party, which tries to ignore their record, tries to ignore the number of extremists in their ranks and to ignore their future programme. I can guess why.”

LABOUR AUTHORITIES' RATE DEMANDS

Mr Michael Heseltine, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Henley and the Conservative Spokesman on the Environment, said:

“We are against further municipalisation. This is one of the economies that we think we can make in public expenditure. Local Labour Councillors will not be allowed under a Conservative Government to indulge in this profligate use of ratepayers' money. In inner London it is a scandal the way in which the Labour-controlled authorities have put up the rates.” [end p1]

(2) BBC Radio News Report 1800 30 April 1979

Hill

For the Conservatives, Sir Geoffrey Howe has strongly denied Labour's charges that only the well off will profit from Tory tax cuts. Their case rested on what he called ‘Joel Barnett 's bogus blackboard Budget’, but it left several things out.

Howe

He failed to take account at all of the increases in personal allowances for this year which have already been enacted in this year's Finance Act, carried with our approval and support, and, of course, if he fails to take account of that tax cut, which will be part of any continuing Conservative budget, he produces results which are false and misleading, and when those increases are taken into account it becomes clear, even on Mr. Barnett's assumptions about the rest of our proposals, that every tax-payer would, in fact, be better off.

Hill

And Sir Geoffrey went on to ask, what increases Mr. Healey was planning in company taxes and in indirect taxes and where he would cut public spending. His colleague, Michael Heseltine, said Labour canvassers were frightening old people on council estates with the smear that their homes might be sold off under Conservative plans. This was nauseating and without foundation; and Mrs. Thatcher said that she wasn't proposing to change her strategy or tactics at this stage.

Thatcher

We've fought a straightforward, positive campaign about the future of Britain. James CallaghanHe has not. I was determined to do this because I think that what matters is the policies you're going to put in effect in the last five years. I've still continued to fight that campaign despite the kind of campaign fought by the Labour Party which tries to ignore their record, tries to ignore the number of extremists in their ranks and tries to ignore their future programme. I can guess why.