PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
1. Mr. Ray Powell
asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 October.
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House I shall be having further meetings later today.
Mr. Powell
Is the Prime Minister satisfied with the disruption that her miserable Ministers, who are acting against the country, have caused to the police, Telecom workers and steel workers and the miners? Is not the right hon. Lady prepared to take some action against this disruption, and what will she do about the militants in her police force who disrupted the Home Secretary's meeting last night? Will she take time off today to listen to the new record “How does it feel to be the mother of 1,000 dead?” . Will she take——
Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman is being unfair to the rest of the House.
The Prime Minister
That is rather a lot of questions. The police have had a very good deal from this Government and I thought that the performance yesterday evening by the Metropolitan Police Federation was disgraceful. I do not believe that it will have found favour with the vast majority of the Metropolitan Police force, and I think that it will have done it a great deal of damage. The hon. Gentleman mentioned various other subjects. With regard to competition, it serves the British consumer better than nationalised monopolies. With regard to steel, just a few moments before I came to the House I learnt that [column 499]agreement had been reached in the Community in Brussels on the limitation on steel exports to the United States. That is expected to take effect from 29 October. Once again our Ministers have done a good job.
Sir Paul Bryan
Will my right hon. Friend find time today to consider the recent reports that the Home Secretary is about to submit to the House new regulations regarding immigration? In the meantime, will my right hon. Friend give the House an assurance that no final decision will be reached before we have a full debate in the House on the matter?
The Prime Minister
I understand that the new immigration rules will be required when the new British Nationality Act takes effect. It is my right hon. Friend's intention to publish a White Paper next week, which will contain draft immigration rules. The White Paper, subject to agreement with my right hon. Friend John Biffenthe Lord President will be debated for a whole day in the House. Final decisions on the new immigration rules will not take place until after that debate.
Mr. Foot
In view of the statement that the right hon. Lady has just made about the steel industry, and in view of the mounting crisis in that industry, even if the agreement with the EEC forms the basis for a settlement with the United States, will it not still cause a big injury to the British steel industry? What steps will the Prime Minister take to assist the industry in its immediate crisis?
The Prime Minister
Obviously if the EEC has reached agreement as reported, and countervailing duties are therefore not imposed, the situation will be much better than it would otherwise have been. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that there is still a great steel crisis the world over. We have to recover our home market, much of which was lost as a result of the disastrous 13-week steel strike in 1980, when those who had loyally purchased from the British Steel Corporation found that their source of supply was not reliable and had to go elsewhere for steel.
Mr. Foot
Britain's home market is suffering more than any other from steel imports and yet the British Government do less than any other Government about it. What steps will the Prime Minister take to try to deal with increasing steel imports, which threaten to close further major plants unless something is done to stop them?
The Prime Minister praises the agreement between the EEC and the United States. Will she confirm to me and the country that that agreement involves further injury to the British steel industry?
The Prime Minister
Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that he objects to the United States taking steps against imports, and at the same time wants us to take steps against imports? The two do not add up. Britain acts with the Community on steel and we must continue to do so. We must learn to compete in terms of our home market and exporters. Strikes cost jobs and the right hon. Gentleman has been the strikers' friend.
Mr. Foot
The right hon. Lady must face the facts about an industry which she is steadily ruining. Does she not understand that there is a great difference between the position in the United States and here? In the United States about 1 per cent. of the industry is affected by imports, whereas here the figure is about 30 per cent. The United [column 500]States took some action to deal with the problem, but the British Government have taken no action to protect British industry.
The Prime Minister
One-third of our gross domestic product is exported, so if we start protectionism in Britain as a general principle we shall lose jobs in every export industry in the country.
Mr. David Steel
Will the Prime Minister find time today to study the speech by the director-general of NEDC, in which he called for a truce over the frontiers of ownership and instead a concentration on efficiency?
The Prime Minister
I saw the speech. I wondered whether the director-general made the same speech when so many nationalisation measures were introduced. It would have been better if he had made the speech then.
Mr. David Atkinson
Has my right hon. Friend seen the reports in today's papers about the Polish refugee, Josef Samek, who, after 41 years, was reunited with his daughter who lives in my constituency and who believed him to have died in a Soviet labour camp? Is my right hon. Friend aware that the period that Josef Samek is being allowed to stay in Britain has been reduced from six to three months? Will my right hon. Friend ensure that he will be allowed to remain in Britain with his family for as long as he wants to?
The Prime Minister
As my hon. Friend knows, we had a general rule that Polish people here at the time of the military takeover were allowed to stay and were not made to return to Poland, where they might have had a terrible time. If my hon. Friend provides details of the individual case, we shall consider it sympathetically.
Q2. Mr. Beith
asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 October.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Beith
Will the Prime Minister take time to keep up to date with the work of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights? Does she regard the convention as having an important part to play in guarding civil liberties now that it has stood so firm in defence of the three British Rail workers and seems to have persuaded the Home Secretary that he must extend to women citizens the same rights in relation to foreign husbands as men citizens enjoy in respect of their wives?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman will have heard me say earlier that a White Paper is to be issued next week, which will be debated in the House before final decisions on new immigration rules are taken. The closed shop case would not have arisen but for the disgraceful legislation by the Labour Government, which the hon. Gentleman's party supported.
Mr. Peter Bottomley
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the TUC unions which are proposing another day of action in support of National Health Service workers would be better advised to say publicly that they will accept pay settlements lower than the National Health Service settlement? Does my right hon. Friend further agree that the best way to help the low-paid and families is to increase child benefit by more than the rate of inflation?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend never misses an opportunity to plead that cause. I agree that it would be [column 501]best if the National Health Service strike were ended now. That would be better for the patients, better for the reputation of the country and better for all those who hope to achieve orders from overseas and whose interests the strike damages.
Mr. Joel Barnett
Can the Prime Minister explain why we should believe that the economy will become much better with the fall in inflation when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, for example, has been saying the same thing for the past two years and more and the situation has gradually worsened?
The Prime Minister
Many right hon. Members in the Labour Government said that the most important aspect was a fall in inflation. We heard that again yesterday. We must have a fall in inflation if we are to compete with other industrialised countries, as the right hon. Gentleman knows. He will be aware that in spite of being now much more competitive with overseas countries we have still a long way to go before output per man in Britain equals that in the United States, Japan, Germany and France.
Sir Nicholas Bonsor
Does my right hon. Friend share my regret that the European Community should send so much of its butter to the Soviet Union at heavily subsidised prices when our own people cannot afford to buy it? Will my right hon. Friend use her considerable powers to influence our colleagues on the Continent to change the rule?
The Prime Minister
As my hon. Friend knows, Britain has voted firmly against subsidising food exports from the Community to the Soviet Union and will continue to do so.
Q3. Mr. Race
asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 21 October.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Race
Is the Prime Minister aware of the proposed closure of the Wood Green and Southgate hospital in my constituency, which takes patients from Finchley, and which is being closed because of the Government's refusal to fund one-third of the wage rise for Health Service workers this year? In the light of that closure and other closures being contemplated, will the Prime Minister give a categoric assurance to the House that the Government will fund the whole of any increase to Health Service workers next year from the Treasury and not decide, as Ministers are discussing, to fund none of it?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman raises two points. It came out firmly in yesterday's debate that the [column 502]resources available to the National Health Service as a whole are 5 per cent. more in real terms this year. Therefore, the only question is the distribution of that increase over and above what the Labour Government provided in accordance with priorities which all Governments must make and which every responsible person in the House and elsewhere should be prepared to make.
Next year's public expenditure figures have not been published. It would be reasonable, however, to expect some increase in efficiency in the National Health Service in view of the enormous increase in numbers employed in the Health Service.
Mr. John H. Osborn
Will the Prime Minister bear in mind that steel is a vital subject? Would it not be unfortunate if tomorrow's strike were to let in our competitors and take away our orders? Could the unfair competition from Spain be looked at again? Is the Prime Minister aware of the steel committee of the OECD? Will the Government refer our problems vis-a-vis Europe and the World to that committee following the meeting of the International Iron and Steel Institute in Tokyo, where the heads of the steel industry got together and provided much information for all Governments?
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend that if we have more strikes they will cost jobs. Strikes besmirch this country's reputation overseas. They stop investment and orders that would otherwise come here, and cost not only the strikers' jobs but jobs in other companies.
We must continue to work with the EEC on steel. The best thing we can do is to buy more British goods, assuming that their quality and suitability are equal to that of overseas goods. If people bought more British goods many of our problems would be solved.
Several Hon. Members
rose——
Mr. Speaker
Order. We were one minute late in starting. I shall allow one more supplementary question.
Mr. Litherland
Will the Prime Minister explain why the Government are subsidising unnamed private steel consortiums, and giving vast sums of public money to buy out and close private steel firms such as Manchester Steel Ltd. in my constituency, with the loss of 810 jobs and a vital industry?
The Prime Minister
While the steel market is falling world-wide, and we are not competing as well as we should, we have to make the best possible arrangements for jobs as a whole. I believe that that is what is happening.