PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
Q1. Mr. Pike
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 20 March.
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. This evening I hope to have an audience of Her Majesty the Queen.
Mr. Pike
Does the Prime Minister recognise that the basic unfairness of the poll tax means that thousands of people in north-east Lancashire, and millions throughout the country, will not simply be not paying, but will be unable to pay? Because of high inflation and the [column 1007]Government's policy of forcing up mortgages and council house rents, the position will become worse. When will the right hon. Lady do something to help those who cannot afford to pay their poll tax?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman comes from Lancashire, where the country has set a very high community charge—indeed, far higher than the amount considered reasonable by the Government. That is being passed on to all the districts. Burnley has received £101 in safety net, so it is better off than many other areas. The taxpayer will be paying about £3 billion towards the community charge rebate and also towards transitional relief. That is an excellent amount to help those who cannot afford to pay and to help those who cannot afford to pay and to help those who face a sudden increase to obtain transitional relief.
Mr. Michael Morris
Is my right hon. Friend aware that our right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Health said both today and last week that every patient would have whatever medicine he or she might need? Is she further aware that that statement is enormously welcome? However, while clause 18 on indicative budgets remains in the National Health Service and Community Care Bill, there will always be a worry that an element will be cash limited by some future Secretary of State.
The Prime Minister
I note the inherent contradiction between my hon. Friend's first sentence and his second. An indicative budget is not a rigid budget, and it is precisely for that reason that Kenneth Clarkemy right hon. and learned Friend has stressed that doctors will receive the amount of money necessary to prescribe what they think is best for their patients.
Mr. Kinnock
What reward does the Prime Minister have in mind for the hon. Member for Torridge and Devon, West (Miss Nicholson) who, hearing of the decision of councillors in Humberside to resign the Conservative Whip, said, “Well done them!” ?
The Prime Minister
I would rather address my comments to the change in Beverley. Beverley is unfortunately in a Socialist country—&osb:Interruption] It has the great misfortune—[Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker
Order.
The Prime Minister
Beverley is in Humberside, which has a community charge of £83 a head over what the Government consider reasonable. They are prepared to inflict that amount on all their constituents. Beverley neither contributes to nor receives a safety net. All the other districts in Humberside receive a safety net, but Beverley does not. Beverley therefore has very good reason to be dissatisfied with Socialist Humberside.
Mr. Kinnock
The right hon. Lady does not listen to anyone. If she did, she might have heard her fellow Conservative, Councillor Steve Parnaby, chairman of the finance committee of Beverley council, say that the poll tax had nothing at all to do with Labour councils. In his words the poll tax is “not right” and “not fair” and the Government
“has got it [completely] wrong.”
Is not that absolutely true everywhere?
The Prime Minister
People in Humberside and many other Socialist or Labour authorities are paying far more because they live in a Labour authority than they would if [column 1008]they lived in a Conservative one. For example, in Conservative Barnet the community charge is £338 compared with next-door Labour Haringey's £573, Conservative Kingswood's £395 community charge is compared with next-door Bristol's £490 and Conservative Westminster's £195 compared with next-door Labour Camden's £534. The lesson is that it always costs more to live in a Labour authority.
Mr. Nelson
Is my right hon. Friend aware that there will be a widespread welcome today for the news that additional help in the form of a 30 per cent. increase in allowance will be provided for disabled students in higher education and that new allowances will be made available for their particular needs for care, personal support and equipment? Is that not further evidence that Conservative Governments can always be relied on to help most those in most need?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct, and this adds to the excellent record of the Government with regard to disabled people. We have spent nearly double the amount over and above inflation upon those who are disabled. It is a very good example of how we may not talk so much about welfare but we do a great deal more about it.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Q2. Mr. Cousins
To ask the Prime Minister when she next proposes to visit Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Prime Minister
I have at present no plans to do so.
Mr. Cousins
When the Prime Minister next makes it up to our fine and well-run city, what hope does she expect to bring for Gemma Hayley of Blakelaw who has waited three years for a liver transplant, who cannot get it done in her own city, because, although the doctors there are trained, no money has been allocated for them to use their skills, and who has to go backwards and forwards to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, and who finds budgets and figures very hard to understand because she is only six years old?
The Prime Minister
As I know well, and I expect the hon. Gentleman also knows well, that particular hospital in Cambridge is the very best, specialising in liver transplants. I do not think that anyone would complain about going there—it is a quite magnificent hospital.
Mr. Trotter
When my right hon. Friend next visits Tyneside, will she see for herself the visible signs of progress and the success story of the regeneration of our area? Will she accept that there is a new spirit of confidence in the north-east, which is better placed to face the challenge of the future than it ever has been in the past?
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend. About a year ago I went up to Tyneside and saw the excellent amount of development that is taking place there and the much better employment position. It has a very good future. Swan Hunter has a good order for frigates, and there are many other things in the pipeline that will bring new prosperity to Newcastle—greater even than it is enjoying now.
Engagements
[column 1009]Q3. Mr. Douglas
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 20 March.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Douglas
Has the right hon. Lady had any time today to examine her conscience? I take it that she has responsibility for that. If she has done so, will she compare and contrast the position before the law of the Fayeds, who were able to lie and cheat to acquire substantial assets, with that of the poorer sections of the population in my constituency and other areas who, if they cannot afford to pay the poll tax—and many cannot—will be visited by state-sponsored violence in the form of poinding and warrant sales? How does that square with the right hon. Lady's conscience?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman is fully aware that if people cannot afford to pay the poll tax they will receive a community charge rebate, and an additional 20 per cent. if they are on income support, to enable them to pay the rest. That is being paid for in full by the taxpayer because many Labour authorities have overspent. The overspending by local authorities is in the order of £3 billion, and the taxpayer will be paying an extra £700 million towards community charge rebate to ensure that people do not suffer from the extravagances of Labour authorities.
Mr. Holt
Would my right hon. Friend care to know that tomorrow morning, when the people of Middlesbrough receive their community charge bill, no fewer than 24,660 of them will be in receipt of transitional relief—an average of £48 per household—at a cost of £1.2 million to the Exchequer? That type of relief is available in many parts of the country where there are low-rated houses. It is automatic and not means-tested.
The Prime Minister
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. There are two types of relief—the community charge rebate, which is means tested, and the transitional relief, which is not means tested. I understand that most of the bills that have gone out so far have included the amount of rebate that the community charge payer will receive, and also the transitional relief. That has enabled them not to be worried about a charge that otherwise might have caused them some concern.
Q4. Mr. Alton
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 20 March.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Alton
With Estonia about to follow Lithuania in demanding the right to self-determination, will the Prime Minister take this opportunity to emphasise to President Landsbergis and to President Gorbachev our country's commitment to the Baltic peoples' right to self-determination in the face of sabre-rattling and intimidation? Will she commend the people of the Baltic states for their courage and resolve?
[column 1010]The Prime Minister
As the hon. Gentleman is aware, we have never recognised the legal annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We recognise especially that Lithuania has expressed the wish to determine her own future. We hope that the position will be satisfactorily resolved between those who express that wish and President Gorbachev—so that the people of Lithuania may have their wish.
Mr. David Evans
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the community charge, or service charge as it is known in Welwyn Hatfield, is a bargain, as only 25 per cent. is paid by each individual towards its cost? Is not a 75 per cent. discount a bargain?
The Prime Minister
Where local authorities are spending to the amount that the Government consider to be reasonable, their community charges are usually reasonable. If people cannot afford to pay, they will get rebates. The community charge has brought relief to many people who live alone, who were paying high rates and who now, for the first time, have fairness and justice in paying only one community charge, which is often a good deal lower than the amount of rates that they would otherwise pay—[Interruption.]—as is clear from many letters in The Times in recent months on this subject.
Q5. Mr. Salmond
To ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Tuesday 20 March.
The Prime Minister
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
Mr. Salmond
Is the Prime Minister aware that the Government have suffered yet another opinion poll setback in Scotland, this time from a BBC pre-Budget survey of Scotland's top 200 companies showing that only a quarter of them believe that the Government are sympathetic to Scottish interests? Is the right hon. Lady aware that that means that Scotland's top companies have joined the rest of the community in concluding that the Government's economic policy in general and the Budget this afternoon in particular will be dictated by economic conditions in the south of England without reference to the needs of the rest of the country?
The Prime Minister
This Government, like our Conservative predecessors, have looked after the needs of Scotland particularly well. We are well aware of the pride of Scotland and how much the Scottish people consider everything Scottish, and therefore we have given them far more per head in expenditure than has been given to England and Wales.
I looked at recent polls on the economy. A recent one in The Independent made it clear that twice as many voters would expect the economy to be weaker under Labour, that twice as many people would expect prices to rise faster under Labour. That was a very good write-up for Conservative Government.