PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
Q1. Mrs. Gorman
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 15 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.
Mrs. Gorman
Will my right hon. Friend find time in her busy day to remind people of the importance of today's Euro-elections? Will she note the growing support by people in Northern Ireland for the Conservative party? Today they will have a chance to vote for Dr. Laurence Kennedy, our first-ever Conservative Euro-candidate in Ulster? Will she include him in her greetings to our candidates?
The Prime Minister
I have already sent the message of greeting and support which my hon. Friend seeks to our Euro-candidates. I agree that it is a very important election and a very important day and I hope that people will turn out in strength and vote. I note what my hon. Friend says about matters in Northern Ireland. I know her strong views about parties there, and I note what she says.
Mr. Kinnock
Why cannot the Prime Minister simply answer yes to the question, “Is the Chancellor going to retain his job after the forthcoming reshuffle?”
The Prime Minister
I answer on precisely what Nigel Lawsonthe Chancellor said on Wednesday of last week in the economic debate. The Chancellor set out the Government's position clearly and in some detail. he said:
“Our overriding”
—I repeat “overriding” —
“objective is to bring inflation back down.”
We shall not be diverted from that course.
[column 1119]Mr. Kinnock
Is that “gladly, joyfully, generously, fully, fully, fully” a refusal to guarantee the future of the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
The Prime Minister
I repeat what I said last week. If the right hon. Gentleman would like a little longer lecture I will read out the entire speech.
Sir Peter Tapsell
While the Leader of the Opposition regards all this as a joke, is it not about time that we all began to take the sterling situation rather seriously and that the Leader of the Opposition ceased to try twice a week to talk sterling down?
The Prime Minister
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Neil KinnockThe Leader of the Opposition is normally trying to help the speculators and talks sterling down in the most un British way.
Q2. Ms. Primarolo
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 15 June.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Ms. Primarolo
Will the Prime Minister confirm that her policy of keeping interest rates as high as necessary for as long as necessary means that she will be prepared to tolerate a further increase in mortgage interest rates?
The Prime Minister
I repeat what Nigel Lawsonthe Chancellor said in his most excellent speech in the economic debate giving his policy very fully. He set out the Government's position and said:
“Our overriding”
—I repeat “overriding” —
“objective is to bring inflation back down.”
The Chancellor said:
“the policies that have successfully brought inflation down in the past … will do so again.” —[Official Report, 7 June 1989; Vol. 154, c. 264.]
We have had an extremely successful economic policy.
Q3. Mrs. Peacock
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 15 June.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mrs. Peacock
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government's main priority is to reduce inflation? Will she also condemn members of the Opposition, including the Leader of the Opposition, for continually trying to talk the pound down?
The Prime Minister
Yes, I confirm once again that that is the Government's overriding priority, as my right hon. Friend Nigel Lawsonthe Chancellor said in the economic debate. We shall not be deflected from that course of action. I agree that the Opposition try to talk down the pound, which is a great tragedy.
Mr. Shore
Apart from the obvious and damaging effect that high interest rates have on the competitiveness of British industry, is it not a fact that the main effect of high interest rates, far from reducing aggregate demand, is simply to redistribute demand away from hard-pressed first-time mortgagors and other borrowers to people who are savers and creditors? If that is so, is this not an extremely unfair and ineffective way to reduce demand and counter inflation?
[column 1120]The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman is aware that inflation is a monetary phenomenon, and short-term interest rates are the main instrument for dealing with it.
Q4. Mr. Patrick McNair-Wilson
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 15 June.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. McNair-Wilson
Does my right hon. Friend agree that those both inside and outside Parliament who continually delight in rubbishing the achievements of this country fail to grasp the inherent strength of the British economy? Do we not now have a record level of new job creation in Europe, enjoy a record high standard of living, and have a record repayment of the debts piled up by the Labour party when it last had muddled control of our economy?
The Prime Minister
Yes, I agree with my hon. Friend. We have a record high standard of living and a record high standard of social services.
Mr. Tony Banks
And inflation.
The Prime Minister
No, the Labour party has the record on inflation this century, with a rate of 27 per cent. As well as the record high standards of living and of social services, we have record repayment of debt, and record standards of investment in manufacturing industry and of business investment. I could go on with record after record of good things for the British people—an excellent record.
Dr. Kim Howells
How do the Government intend to clean up our rivers and beaches if they refuse to give the National Rivers Authority the powers to prosecute the regional water companies after they have been privatised?
The Prime Minister
Both our rivers and our beaches are being cleaned up, contrary to what happened during the time of the Labour Government. The directive from Europe came out in 1975, and it asked Governments to identify beaches that did not come up to standard. By 1979, the Labour Government had not identified one. It was left to us to identify them all. We have done so. Two thirds have already been dealt with and the other one third will soon be dealt with. As to rivers, 95 per cent. are classified, on European standards, as good or fair, which is the best record in the Community.
European Commission
Q5. Mr. Leigh
To ask the Prime Minister if she has received representations regarding the European Commission.
The Prime Minister
I receive a number of such representations.
Mr. Leigh
Whatever else divides the two major parties, is not one thing crystal clear, and comes out in representations concerning the European Community? It is that the overwhelming majority of the House insists that this House, representing the people as it does, must retain its untrammelled power over taxation. Were we to subscribe to a central European bank or a common currency, the House would lose the right, uniquely sustained over many centuries, democratically to control [column 1121] economic policy. Is that not why public opinion in this country is so different from that in other parts of the Community?
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend that the ability to run monetary, economic and fiscal policy lies at the heart of what constitutes a sovereign state. I very much agree with him that the rights and powers of national Governments and Parliaments in these matters must be preserved. That is what this Parliament is for. We must resist the constant centralising tendency of the European Community.
Mr. Spearing
Is the Prime Minister aware that the House has made representations to the Government about the Commission's proposals for all-European television rules? Is she aware also that at 3 am on Tuesday the House debated those rules, when it became clear that the decision whether a certain pornographic television channel which is transmitted in a member state, which I shall not name, becomes a legal transmission in Britain will be made by a majority vote? When the Prime Minister placed the Single European Act before the House, was she misled by others about its possible effects and potential? Was the right hon. Lady misled by the Commission or the Foreign Office, or is there some other explanation for this extraordinary state of affairs?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman knows full well that there is nothing misleading about the Single European Act. Greater majority voting in some spheres was clearly on the face of the Act, and he knows that. There is a question about interpretation with regard to one or two matters. Unanimous voting on certain matters was also clearly on the face of the Act. The hon. Gentleman knows that full well.
The hon. Gentleman knows that the Government have done more than any other to try to raise television quality standards, and hitherto we have had precious little help from the Opposition in so doing.
Sir Ian Lloyd
On 27 June nearly 40 years ago, the then Leader of the Opposition, in his matchless prose, made a declaration on behalf of the Conservative and Liberal parties that
“national sovereignty is not inviolable, and that it may be resolutely diminished for the sake of all the men in all the lands finding their way home together.” —[Official Report, 27 June 1950; Vol. 476, c. 2159.]
When my right hon. Friend discusses these extremely important matters with her colleagues in the Community, will she consider not the unregenerate idealism of someone such as myself, who matters little, but the important idealism of the young people of Britain and elsewhere in Europe, who should be inspired by the idealism of the founding fathers, who have far to travel and who have not yet found their way home?
The Prime Minister
Every time we sign a treaty of international agreement we are voluntarily engaging in a certain pooling of sovereignty. That has been so almost ever since Parliament began and the first treaty was signed. When we went into the Common Market we agreed to pool our sovereignty on such things as the common[column 1122] agricultural policy. Hitherto it was negotiated completely through Europe. We agreed to pool all our rights in trading with other nations and henceforth the Community conducted our trading negotiations through the Community and the Commission. There are other occasions where one pools one's sovereignty. To revert to what I was asked about earlier, taxation policy, economic policy and monetary policy go to the heart of the rights of this place, to the heart of representations by the people and to control of the Executive, and that is one of the reasons why the House exists.
Mr. Tony Banks
What pathetic, miserable and whingeing excuses is the Prime Minister going to offer the country for her party's humiliation in the Euro polls today?
The Prime Minister
I know that all our supporters will come out and vote strongly for our sort of Europe. I note that Opposition Members were not sufficiently confident in the results to come and question me in the House this afternoon. They had to run away. They felt that if they did not do so their supporters might not come out.
Engagements
Q7. Mr. Thurnham
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 15 June.
The Prime Minister
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Thurnham
If any members of Tonge Moor Conservative club have not heeded Mr. George Handley 's excellent advice to be sure to vote today, will my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister remind them that the students in Peking are dying for democracy and that we should all go out and vote for the winning party, the party with more jobs, more exports, more productivity and more investment?
The Prime Minister
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. This Conservative Government have created a strong Britain whose reputation rides high because we have put the economy in order. Voting Conservative today will help to create a strong Europe, and a strong Britain in a strong Europe, which pursues the same policies that have been so successful in this country.
Mr. Geoffrey Robinson
Is the Prime Minister aware that nothing so clearly reveals the dead trouble that she is in over sterling than the pathetically orchestrated series of questions about the Leader of the Opposition talking down sterling? Is she not aware that the persistent bickering between her and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and her pathetic record on inflation and the balance of payments are driving down sterling? The Prime Minister's policies and her failure to deal with that situation in the markets in Europe are on trial.
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman has provided evidence of what we were complaining about earlier. The Opposition are out to write sterling down. Once again, he is at it, and his hon. Friends cannot leave it alone.