PRIME MINISTER
(Engagements)
Q1. Mr. Viggers
asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 11 March.
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
In addition to my duties in this House, I shall be having meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. This evening I hope to have an Audience of Her Majesty The Queen.
Mr. Viggers
Has the Prime Minister had time to read press reports about the recent activities of the so-called National [column 1147]Union of School Students, including joining in TUC protest rallies and holding a weekend conference on lessons in revolution? Does she agree that this movement cannot be completely disregarded as long as it is subsidised by the National Union of Students and as long as its support is accepted by the TUC without comment? Does she agree also that the TUC and the Labour Party should join us in condemning this movement?
The Prime Minister
Of course I agree with my hon. Friend that we must deplore any attempt by any group to advocate contempt for the law. I believe that the TUC would join us in this. I believe that this organisation is a small one and that its numbers are dwindling. In view of its activities, that is not surprising. We hope that that trend will continue.
Mr. Barry Jones
Why has the Prime Minister consistently undermined and humiliated her Secretary of State for Employment?
The Prime Minister
James Prior She has not.
Hon. Members
Ask him.
Mr. Thornton
Will my right hon. Friend find time to reflect on the report in The Daily Telegraph this morning of the decision to restart sales from the EEC butter mountain to the USSR? Will she instruct her Ministers to renegotiate the common agricultural policy, which the vast majority of people in this country find totally unacceptable?
The Prime Minister
I have seen those reports. We are very much against, and will continue to press our case against the sale of subsidised butter to the Soviet Union. We have pressed the case in every Council of Ministers, but, as hon. Members know, we do not always have the support of our partners in pursuing our case.
On the question of the common agricultural policy, we agree as have most British Governments, that it needs reforming. However, I would be less than frank if I did not warn my hon. Friend that that will be a very difficult task indeed, and we shall need to be extremely persistent.
Mrs. Renée Short
Will the Prime Minister find time today to look at the advice being given by various people to her [column 1148]Eminence grise, Sir Derek Rayner? Several Select Committees of this House are anxious to have Sir Derek's advice, but they are experiencing difficulties. Will she remove those difficulties?
The Prime Minister
There may well be some problems if Sir Derek Rayner is asked to attend every Select Committee to answer for every project, which he has not done himself, but which people in the separate Departments have done. I urge hon. Members very genuinely to consider this matter. If, because Sir Derek has done one tiny project in each Department, it is suggested that he should be summoned to every Select Committee, we might find ourselves losing the services of a remarkable and wonderful person.
Mr. Emery
To help raise the vast sums of money that will be necessary to assist the new Government in Zimbabwe to overcome the ravages of war, will my right hon. Friend consult the leaders of the Commonwealth, with the object of establishing a development fund? Will she request contributions from the United States of America, the EEC and the Commonwealth to assist Mr. Mugabe to hold to the moderate policies that he has outlined in a most statesmanlike manner?
The Prime Minister
Of course we shall consider what assistance is needed by Rhodesia after independence. We shall discuss that matter with Mr. Mugabe. Some assistance will be forthcoming from Britain. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion that we should consult others to determine whether they would be prepared to provide extra assistance.
European Community Budget (United Kingdom Contribution)
Q2. Mr. Renton
asked the Prime Minister whether she has any plans to publish a consultative document on methods of reducing the United Kingdom's net contribution to the EEC.
The Prime Minister
No, Sir. We are working on the basis of the Commission Paper of 5 February, which has been placed in Vote Office.
Mr. Renton
May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the new title that she has won in the French Press today, [column 1149]namely, the Uranium Lady? As a chemist, she will know that uranium causes fusion as well as fission. Does she agree that Western Europe badly needs to be more united and that there is much constructive work to be done in the Community in, for example, giving assistance to the developing world?
Mr. Speaker
Order. Questions should be shorter.
The Prime Minister
I do not wish to enter into a dissertation on the chemical qualities of uranium, except to say that it is a very lively metal indeed. I agree entirely with my hon. Friend that Europe needs to be united, and to stay united, as a free Europe against the unfree part of Europe, which is bound by bands of steel around the Soviet Union.
Mr. David Steel
Are the Government prepared to accept more help than they have accepted to date from the EEC social fund to help restructure the steel industry?
The Prime Minister
I am pleased to report to the right hon. Gentleman that we have applied for every aid for which we could possibly apply from the EEC. If anything more is forthcoming, we shall gladly apply for it. I understand that the possibility that more money may go to the European social fund for steel closures would involve a comparatively small amount, about £20 million, which is small compared with the large amounts that have been set aside for redundancies within the cash limits by the British Steel Corporation. We shall apply for whatever is available. After all, we are paying for it.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd
When considering our contributions to the EEC, does my right hon. Friend agree that it would be wholly wrong to have any time for any Commission proposal to tax the consumption or importation of oil into the EEC? Such a tax would have two effects. First, it would raise prices for our consumers and, secondly, it would give encouragement to our colleagues in the EEC not to repay the money that the EEC owes to us.
The Prime Minister
I think that some of us regard that proposal with some suspicion, even though we are told that it would apply more heavily to [column 1150]Continental countries. We should be slow to put any more taxes on oil for European reasons.
Mr. Heffer
Is not the right hon. Lady aware that, despite her eloquence on French television last night, she has weakened the case for reducing the budget by saying in advance that under no circumstances would she accept either the empty chair policy or withdrawal from the EEC?
The Prime Minister
I happen to believe that it is in Britain's interests, and in the interests of Europe as a whole, that Britain should remain a member of the Community. I believe that the Community would be very much less effective without Britain. Nothing will move me from that belief. I tried to show last night how the French would view matters if they were in the same position as Britain, and how fiercely they would demand justice from the Community. We shall continue to do just that.
Mr. Heffer
The right hon. Lady will not get what she wants.
Mr. James Callaghan
Was it not made clear at the time of the original negotiations for entry into the EEC that if an unacceptable position should arise appropriate measures should be taken to put that position right? At the same time it was made clear that common agricultural policy expenditure would be reduced to below 50 per cent. of the total budget. As an unacceptable position has now arisen, and as the common agricultural policy expenditure has not been reduced, I hope that the right hon. Lady will go to Brussels knowing that she has the full support of everyone in the House for a substantial reduction in the amount of the payment. If she does not secure that reduction, it would be appropriate for us to withhold the whole or part of our value added tax contributions.
The Prime Minister
I confirm what the right hon. Gentleman has said, that at the time our entry into the EEC was negotiated it was said that if unacceptable positions should arise it would be for the Community to find a solution to the problems. An unacceptable position has arisen, and it is for the Community to find that solution.
[column 1151]Thailand
Q3. Mr. Churchill
asked the Prime Minister if she will seek to pay an official visit to Thailand.
The Prime Minister
I have at present no plans to do so.
Mr. Churchill
Is my right hon. Friend aware of the plight of more than 500,000 Cambodian refugees sandwiched between the Vietnamese invasion army and the Thai defence forces along the Thai-Cambodian border? Will my right hon. Friend take the initiative on behalf of the United Kingdom and call for a reconvening of the Geneva conference in order to neutralise Cambodia? If such solution proves impossible to achieve, will she make the strongest representations, together with our allies, to the Vietnamese Government and its Soviet ally to protect and safeguard the civilian population?
The Prime Minister
With regard to the first part of my hon. Friend's question, there are a considerable number of refugees caught in the troubles, as he indicated. It is a tragic situation. The answer to the second part of his question about reconvening the Geneva Conference is that we and the Soviet Union were co-chairmen of that conference, and it does not appear to me that that would be a suitable vehicle at present.
My right hon. and noble Friend Lord Carringtonthe Foreign Secretary, at a conference of the ASEAN countries and EEC Foreign Ministers last week, asked the United Nations to pursue the possibility, if need be, of an international conference. I am afraid that that proposal was rejected almost immediately by Vietnam. In the meantime, we shall continue to do everything that we can to relieve the great suffering in Cambodia, on the Thailand border, and among refugees in Thailand.
Mr. Hooley
Is the Prime Minister aware that all previous Prime Ministers of Thailand were educated in the United Kingdom? Does the right hon. Lady realise that if the Government persist in their present lunatic policy on a 500 per cent. increase in overseas students' fees, that happy tradition will come to an abrupt end?
The Prime Minister
As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have increased overseas students' fees because we have [column 1152]to make economies. There will be the possibility for some applications to ODA for a part of the aid that we make available, in order to help needy students.
Tuc
Q4. Mr. Ioan Evans
asked the Prime Minister when she plans next to meet the Trades Union Congress.
The Prime Minister
No dates have yet been arranged.
Mr. Evans
As the steel strike is now in its tenth week, and as there is some hope in the talks that are now taking place will the right hon. Lady have a word with the Secretary of State for Industry and tell him not to continue the harsh limits that he is imposing on the steel industry, so that the dispute can be settled? Secondly, as the trade union movement now has the support of the EEC Commissioners in its claim that Britain is running down its steel industry too rapidly, will she review the situation and stop the massive redundancies that will take place in South Wales?
The Prime Minister
I am sure that both the hon. Gentleman and I hope that the talks that are taking place today will reach a settlement and that those who work with the BSC will soon be back at work. As I indicated earlier, we are applying for every EEC aid that is available, but that is nothing like the quantity that the BSC has made available out of the cash limit for redundancies. As the hon. Gentleman knows, I believe that those who will lose their jobs should be treated generously. I also believe that the task of the Government is to try to provide remedial measures of the kind that we are providing in South Wales for those who would otherwise be without a job.