| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Bell: We rewrite history quickly, even within hours. I certainly did not say that.
Mr. Page: The hon. Gentleman led us to believe that De Lorean was a gleaming jewel in the crown of Labour policy on inward investment.
I can help the hon. Gentleman on inward acquisitions and their effect on the volume shown by the figures. Inward investment acquisitions represented 13 per cent. of last year's total. That will add 1,178 new jobs--I am suspicious of the exactitude of that calculation--to the 16,797 jobs that will be safeguarded by those acquisitions.
The hon. Gentleman's enthusiasm for the social chapter was evident. Businesses up and down the country will take note of what he said. Continental employers know
6 Dec 1996 : Column 1347
A week ago, I was in the north of England. A British company had bought a German company, had taken all the equipment from that company, and had established it in the north. The 100 jobs that will be created there will be lost to Germany, because of the high costs of operating in Germany. By his enthusiasm for the social chapter, the hon. Gentleman promises, with unerring accuracy, what will cause the most damage. The Labour party is in favour of imposing those burdens.
The Labour party would sign up to the social chapter immediately. It would enthusiastically accept the working time directive. It would roll over, and say yes to the burdens on business that the social chapter and the working time directive would impose. Coming down the bulging pipeline is the directive to shift the burden of proof in sex discrimination cases. An employer will have to prove that he or she has not discriminated against any individual. Apart from being a huge burden on business, that is a breathtaking breach of natural justice as practised in this country.
EU Commissioner Flynn is up front about his social action agenda. As a first step, he wants to remove the derogations that we have succeeded in including in the working time directive. As a result, offshore workers would be unable to work in the way that they are used to, and, dare I say it, in the way that they want to work.
Labour claims that it can pick and choose from the social chapter, that it can take what it wants and reject what it does not like. It is either misinformed or is being misleading because that cannot be done. The proposals that I have mentioned are covered by qualified majority voting and Britain, under a Labour Government, would be powerless to stop them. The social chapter is not an a la carte menu: the tariff must be paid in its entirety or not at all. If it is accepted the bill would be high and it would send our inward investors running for cover, as would the minimum wage. That is another dish on Labour's menu without prices. Labour menaces British employers with it but it is too ashamed to say at what level the minimum wage would be set. However Labour knows that it would cost jobs.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West (Mr. Butterfill) said that he had a fixed constituency engagement and would have to leave before the end of the debate. He came to the House clutching his Library brief rather than a Conservative central office brief--both of which are good, solid documents. My hon. Friend hammered out the realities, which bear repeating time and again. Some 43 per cent. of investment into the European Union is to the United Kingdom while Germany gets 3 per cent. Which country has the social chapter and which has a free and open approach? As my hon. Friend said, 9.5 per cent. of total world investment comes to this sceptred isle. We should be proud of that and blazon forth the accolade at every opportunity.
6 Dec 1996 : Column 1348
My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade will be far too busy to send the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) a postcard from Singapore. If I endeavoured to answer the hon. Gentleman's host of questions, time would soon run out. He was right to ask about the effect of inward investment on our manufacturing base. In addition to my comments about regional supply and how it will help small and medium-sized businesses to grow, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that one fifth of manufacturing output and two fifths of our exports are produced by overseas-owned manufacturers. Some 40 per cent. of our manufactured exports are by companies that have come to this country. That is an astounding figure and it reinforces the importance of the Government's inward investment policy and justifies it.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West rightly spoke about the powerful message in the much-quoted research brief. I looked at my hon. Friend as he was speaking and saw no reason at all why he should not still be here in 2020 giving the House an update on present programmes. He mentioned another matter that is not often quoted. In this country we have a hang-up about taking pride in our successes. Inward investment is a huge success and we should be prepared to say so time and again. Let us shout it from the rooftops.
The hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) is a civilised man. He was able to complete the quotation that his hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough could not remember. In his few comments, he allowed his journalistic training to take over.
Mr. Page:
The hon. Member for Rotherham is a Chinese rat; he is not a British rat. However, his journalistic training took him a little too far. Calling us the "Albania of Europe" was slightly extreme.
The hon. Member for Rotherham said that we are on a "rollercoaster of inflation". For a few moments, my breath was taken away. I was elected to the House in 1976, in a by-election in Workington. The only reason why that rock-solid Labour seat was returned to a Conservative Member is that the then Labour Government had established a 26 per cent. inflation rate. For the past four or five years, we have had the lowest and most stable inflation rate for decades, yet the hon. Gentleman refers to it as a "rollercoaster". As I said, it is journalistic exaggeration.
The hon. Member for Rotherham took refuge in figures of a selective if not--dare I say it--a dodgy nature. He was critical of the Government's performance on inflation. He then raised, and skated round, the issue of a minimum wage. He prayed in aid what was happening in the United States, and the "massive rise" in the minimum wage level there.
Mr. Page:
He did, although I am sure that he did so accidentally. I have it in my notes. He accidentally omitted to mention that the "massive rise" in the United States took its minimum wage to £2.84. Wow--what a large increase! I should have liked for him to come clean and to tell us exactly what the Labour party's minimum
6 Dec 1996 : Column 1349
Mr. MacShane:
I did not want to speak again in this debate, but I must correct that error. The figure is $5.15. When it was set, the exchange rate would have made the value in sterling about £3.10--if the Minister wants the exact figure. Since then, however, sterling has been shooting upwards, making it even more difficult for our exporters.
Mr. Page:
As I understand it--I should again like to help the hon. Gentleman--that is the figure that will apply from September 1997; it is not the current figure. However, regardless of whether the pound has appreciated, the rate is set at a very low figure in the United States. I leave it to the hon. Gentleman to remember, when next he wishes to pray in aid the United States minimum wage, just how low that rate is--it is low enough to be irrelevant--and to have the courage to quote the Labour party's policy on a minimum wage.
My hon. Friend the Member for Shoreham (Mr. Stephen)--unfortunately, I had to pop out of the Chamber while he made his speech--mentioned the importance and value of the aid and trade provision. He rightly said that we should concentrate ATP on bilateral trade. About half of our £2 billion aid budget is bilateral. The other half, obviously, is multilateral, which enables us to fulfil many of our international obligations.
The hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone) is not a political soulmate of mine--or of most Conservative Members. But his call for higher taxation was--in civil service language--"courageous, brave and breathtaking." He was absolutely right to mention our level of trade with the rest of the European Union and how important that trade is for our industries. Many hon. Members could firmly take on board that message.
My hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Smith) made the case for free trade. In doing so, he touched on a vital point that had not been mentioned before in the debate: the issue of productivity, and of how inward investment is made in the United Kingdom, improving quality and productivity. That is absolutely vital if we are to take our place in the world markets on a competitive basis. I am glad to be able to tell him that, whereas we were something like 100 per cent. or half as unproductive as the Germans, the latest figures show that the gap has closed. We have improved by some 80 per cent. or 40 per cent., depending on where one puts the baseline. My hon. Friend's figures are therefore already out of date--we have already started to move up the tables.
"we have too rigid labour laws. We have too high social costs and taxes. We work the shortest week in Europe. The German government spends 50 per cent. of GDP as opposed to 42 per cent. in Britain. No wonder we have a problem."
He is absolutely right.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |