Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

House of Commons PQs

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: House of Commons
Source: Hansard HC [44/695-700]
Editorial comments: 1515-1530.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 2327
Themes: Executive, Monarchy, Parliament, Defence (arms control), Defence (Falklands), Employment, Industry, Monetary policy, Public spending & borrowing, Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Foreign policy (Western Europe - non-EU), Labour Party & socialism, Law & order, Social security & welfare
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PRIME MINISTER

Engagements

Q1.

Mr. Rooker asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 30 June.

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, including one with Sir Joshua Hassan, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar. This evening I am giving a reception at 10 Downing street for British exporters.

Mr. Rooker

Does the Prime Minister believe that the families of the unemployed, and the unemployed, should be able to purchase the same amount of food, fuel and clothing from their unemployment benefit in one year as compared with another—yes or no?

The Prime Minister

That will depend very much on their choice of foods and the movement in food prices. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that last year food prices—[Hon. Members: “Answer” .]—increased by only 1 per cent., which is a record never bettered by the Labour Government.

Mr. Foot

Will the right hon. Lady withdraw the answer that she has just made about the choice of food? Does she not think that that is an insulting way to talk of the unemployed people and the way that she is proposing to treat them? Is it not deplorable that this Parliament should have been forced to start with a controversy about the amount of pay that may go to unemployed people in Britain? Has she not recognised that her policies may be adding to the 7 million people already forced to live on means-tested supplementary benefit? Does she say to them that their standard of living merely depends on their choice of food?

The Prime Minister

How they use their national insurance and supplementary benefit is wholly a matter for their choice—[Interruption.] Of course it is.

Mr. Heffer

No understanding.

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The Prime Minister

I have a very good understanding of both selling and buying food, as the hon. Gentleman knows full well. The supplementary benefit system is an addition to, and an essential part of, the national insurance system so that if national insurance is not enough sufficient can be provided for a reasonable standard of living and for housing. Naturally, how people wish to use it is for them. If they require extra for specific purposes, such as heating, extra is available.

Mr. Foot

rose——

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop.

Mr. Foot

Does the right hon. Lady——

Mr. Speaker

Order. I am sorry, I shall call the Leader of the Opposition again in a moment. I have already called the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop).

Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop

When meeting Sir Joshua Hassan, will my right hon. Friend assure him that the British Government will match any subsidies or other Government assistance given to dockyards in Portugal or Spain, which enable them to undercut the commercial viability of the Gibraltar dockyard?

The Prime Minister

No, I cannot give that specific undertaking. We have made generous arrangements for the transfer to a commercial dockyard company of the naval dockyard in Gibraltar, accompanied by about £28 million for the development of Gibraltar. It is for the Government of Gibraltar to decide how that money should be spent.

Mr. Foot

Does the right hon. Lady recall the controversy in the last Parliament about the cut in unemployment benefit? Before she allows her Government to cut that unemployment benefit again, will she arrange for a debate in the House of Commons so that hon. Members can take into account what she said about the unemployed and their choice of food?

The Prime Minister

The arrangements for uprating all national insurance benefits are announced once a year. They are always debated. If those amounts are insufficient, supplementary benefit is available. The right hon. Gentleman is aware that many of the unemployed avail themselves of those benefits, which are for that purpose.

Mr. Churchill

At a time when, by the admission of the right hon. Member for Leeds, East (Mr. Healey), the Soviet Union has established nuclear superiority in Europe, is it not reckless and irresponsible for the Opposition to endorse the Kremlin's call for a nuclear freeze, bearing in mind that that would let the Soviet Union off the hook of having to make any reductions in its nuclear capability? Is it not clear that if a breakthrough is to be made in Geneva it will be made, in contrast, by the determination and stalwartness of the NATO allies and specifically by the British, American and West German Governments?

The Prime Minister

I agree with my hon. Friend. It is an old and well-known tactic of the Soviet Union, first to modernise a particular group of weapons and then to announce a freeze. That increases its superiority and undermines our essential security and defence. We must never be taken in by that ruse.

Mr. Fisher

Will the Prime Minister confirm that Britain does not have dual control of United States nuclear [column 697]weapons sited here? Will she also confirm that the so-called understanding that she has is based upon the 1952 Churchill-Truman communiqué which, in one sentence, refers to

“joint decision … in the light of circumstances prevailing at the time.” ?

The Prime Minister

That question was fully answered in the last Parliament in the following terms:

“The existing understandings between the United Kingdom and the United States governing the use by the United States of nuclear weapons and bases in this country have been jointly reviewed in the light of the planned deployment of cruise missiles. We are satisfied that they are effective. The arrangements will apply to United States cruise missiles based in the United Kingdom whether on or off base. The effect of understandings and the arrangements for implementing them is that no nuclear weapon would be fired or launched from British territory without the agreement of the British Prime Minister.” —[Official Report, 12 May 1983; Vol. 42, c. 435.]

Falkland Islands

Q2. Mr. Wigley

asked the Prime Minister what criteria she will take into account in deciding on the length and size of the British military presence on the Falkland Islands.

The Prime Minister

The principal criterion will be the threat posed by Argentina to the security of the Falkland Islands.

Mr. Wigley

Is the Prime Minister taking into account the cost of maintaining the military presence on the Falkland Islands? Does she believe that the £400 million a year announced by the Secretary of State for Defence on Monday—£500,000 for every family on the islands—is a reasonable ongoing cost when that money could halve the total of 17 million children a year under the age of five around the world who die from malnutrition? Would not that be a more sensible use of the money than concentrating it on 2,000 families on the Falkland Islands?

The Prime Minister

The hon. Gentleman is suggesting the alternative—that one lets those families be governed by the fascist Argentine junta.

Sir Bernard Braine

Does the Prime Minister agree that until Argentina formally ends the hostilities that it started last year, the interest, honour and credibility of our country requires the maintenance of an adequate garrison—[Hon. Members: “Reading.” ] Does my right hon. Friend agree that until Argentina purges itself of those responsible for the disappearance and murder of 30,000 people, including Community citizens and some Britons, there can be no question of making further political progress?

The Prime Minister

It is absolutely right to defend the people of the Falkland Islands and their right to self-determination with regard to their political future. It is also absolutely right to defend the sovereign territory on which they live. That would be so even if there were a change of Government in Argentina. As I understand British democracy—we have just had an election—it is the right of people to choose their future which matters.

Mr. Maclennan

Does the Prime Minister's answer to the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) mean that she is prepared to enter into discussion with the Argentine Government when that Government are transferred from the junta's hands to a civilian regime?

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The Prime Minister

No, that cannot be so. We defend the right of British people to determine their own future when they live on British sovereign territory. Day after day and month after month in debates in this House in the last Parliament we accepted that the rights of the Falkland Islanders were paramount. Is the SDP going off that view?

Mr. Latham

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the vital criteria—to use the word in the question—are exactly as she has said? Do they not include defending the Falkland Islanders' democratic right to exist as they do now, and giving full support to our armed forces in their job?

The Prime Minister

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I hope that Government Members will do both.

Engagements

Q3. Mr. John Townend

asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for 30 June.

The Prime Minister

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Townend

Is my right hon. Friend aware of the growing public concern about the availability of video tapes featuring hard pornography and extreme violence? What action do the Government intend to take to deal with the problem?

The Prime Minister

I recognise the great concern caused by this matter. That is why we referred to it in our party manifesto during the election campaign. It is not enough to have voluntary regulation. We must bring in a law to regulate the matter. My right hon. and learned Friend Leon Brittan the Home Secretary is now considering precisely what form that law should take.

Mr. Wareing

Will the right hon. Lady publish the report by the Central Policy Review Staff, which was referred to in the third report of the Select Committee on the Environment yesterday, and which predicted the disorders that arose on Merseyside? The Government made no response to the report at the time.

The Prime Minister

It is not the practice to publish reports by the Central Policy Review Staff—[Interruption.] It is not the practice. In rare exceptions it is done, but in the majority of cases Governments do not publish. That report did not predict the Toxteth riots. It did, however, take the view that if high unemployment persisted and if the entire region became one of concentrated disadvantage the existing support services and income redistribution mechanisms would be inadequate to prevent social unrest.

Q4. Mr. Hal Miller

asked the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 30 June.

The Prime Minister

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

Mr. Miller

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we must make a serious effort to negotiate disarmament, both nuclear and conventional, but that in the light of the Soviet superiority to which she has referred such disarmament must be mutual, balanced and verifiable? As the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Callaghan) said, is not unilateralism dead?

The Prime Minister

Yes. I believe that the British people have totally and utterly rejected unilateralism and [column 699]that they never really toyed with it at all. I agree that unless disarmament is balanced and verifiable we shall undermine the central security and freedoms upon which the whole foundation of life in Britain depends.

Mr. Park

Bearing in mind that each fall of 1 per cent. in the inflation rate has led to 200,000 more unemployed, does reducing the inflation rate to zero mean that another 1 million people will join the dole queue?

The Prime Minister

With respect to the hon. Gentleman, I believe that that is a ridiculous question. Those countries that have consistently had a low level of inflation have the lowest rates of unemployment.

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Mr. Aitken

Will my right hon. Friend find time today to clarify the situation caused by the Opposition's request for a large number of new Labour peerages? Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is a certain illogicality in the fact that a party which, before the election, campaigned for the abolition of the House of Lords, is now campaigning for 26 of its failed candidates to be sent there?

The Prime Minister

I cannot reveal in any way the content of talks between the Leader of the Opposition and myself, which are wholly confidential. It is customary to have a Dissolution honours list, and we are preparing that at present.