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Mr. Newton: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his courtesy in giving me notice of this question. We are certainly seeking to complete the consultations as soon as possible and I hope that it will be possible to make progress.
Mr. Edward Garnier (Harborough): Will my right hon. Friend make time available at an early opportunity for a debate on the economy, not least on the question of employment, so that I can point out the huge successes in my constituency as a consequence of the Government's economic policies? Is he aware that unemployment is now down to an all-time low of 1,320, which is a 50 per cent. reduction over the period of this Government, since 1992? Will he urgently look for time for a debate that could bring out those points?
Mr. Newton: I shall certainly look for time for a debate that will help to bring out those points, although, I am glad to note, they are being emphasised in various ways: at Prime Minister's questions, on other occasions and through the remarks of my hon. and learned Friend. It certainly is a very good story that deserves to be fully set out.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire): In the debate on the constitution, we will presumably be able to discuss the most fundamental constitutional provision in the UK: the right to vote. In preparation, therefore, for the debate next Thursday, may we have information of just a basic nature on how many people are on the new electoral registers that will operate from this weekend? The Treasury and the Office for National Statistics have refused to provide that information, claiming that it will come forward only in April. April might be too late. We might be into an election by then. How many people have the vote out of those who are entitled to vote? That basic information should be available to us.
Mr. Newton: I shall certainly look into the point that the hon. Gentleman has raised.
Mr. Harry Greenway (Ealing, North): May we have a debate next week on local government finance, because the good people of Ealing face a 10 per cent. increase in their council tax and a severe reduction in services from the ghastly Ealing Labour council? [Interruption.] Labour Members may laugh, but it is a serious matter. The people of Ealing will have to pay for the inefficiency of the Ealing Labour council, and I ask for a debate next week.
Mr. Newton: My hon. Friend will recall that we had a full day's debate on local government finance and the revenue support grant only a week ago, so I cannot promise an early opportunity. However, I wish my hon.
Friend well in defending his constituency interests, as he always does, and perhaps he might raise the subject in a Wednesday morning debate.
Mr. Peter Shore (Bethnal Green and Stepney): With due respect to the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales, the Leader of the House must recognise that a debate on the constitution should embrace Northern Ireland and England. That being so, will he ask the Prime Minister to consider whether he or the Deputy Prime Minister should take part in the debate next week?
Mr. Newton: I am sure that my right hon. Friends will consider the right hon. Gentleman's remarks with care, but there are only two slots in a debate and it is reasonable for the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales to take part next week.
Mr. Rupert Allason (Torbay): May I draw my right hon. Friend's attention to the disgraceful circumstances that surround the design of the euro notes? Is he aware that the euro notes that bear pictures of bridges, especially a bridge in India, have been copied from an English book, probably in breach of copyright? Is it not disgraceful that that has occurred and that Europe has covered up the problem? Will my right hon. Friend find time next week for a Government statement to give an undertaking to the British people that those particular notes will never be introduced as legal tender?
Mr. Newton: I was not present throughout Treasury questions, but my hon. Friend may have asked a question that he was not able to ask earlier because he did not catch your eye, Madam Speaker, although I do not suggest that your selection was not right and proper. I will bring my hon. Friend's remarks to the Chancellor's attention but, as my briefing states, the matter is not one for the Treasury or, indeed, the Government. The design of the euro notes and coins is the responsibility of the European Monetary Institute.
Mr. Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan): Why has the Secretary of State for Health been signed off for the debate on the constitution next week? Is it because, as we read in the papers, he has been sacked for blurting out the truth--there is no greater crime for a Tory Minister--or should we believe the story from 10 Downing street that it was a figment of our imaginations that he was appointed in the first place? Has he been sacked or is he a figment?
Mr. Newton: Whatever else, we may agree that the hon. Gentleman has a vivid imagination. We may also agree that if his question suggested that the Secretary of State for Scotland should not take part in the debate, that is interesting coming from that quarter.
Mr. David Shaw (Dover): Will my right hon. Friend make time for a debate on the appalling state of affairs in Deal in my constituency, where the Labour county council has threatened to close the library, has threatened fire service cover and has caused job losses without opportunities for job replacement, because the county councillor responsible for job replacement has been on 14 junketing trips abroad in the past three years?
Mr. Newton: Since we had a debate on local government in Kent only just over a week ago, my hon. Friend will
understand that I cannot give him an encouraging reply. I hope that my hon. Friend will find other ways to make his effective points.
Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax): Is the Leader of the House aware that on 24 February there will be a lobby of the House by the victims of the Child Support Agency? In view of the chaos in the administration of that dreadful agency, may we please have a debate as a matter of urgency?
Mr. Newton: Such matters have been discussed at length by the House on several occasions, so I cannot promise an early debate. What I can say, as the hon. Lady knows, is that much effort has gone into improving the work of the Child Support Agency, and undoubtedly a significant improvement has taken place.
Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cirencester and Tewkesbury): May we have a debate next week on the subject raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Mr. Shaw)--that of Labour politicians such as councillors junketing around the world? We could then highlight the excesses outlined by the district auditor in Doncaster, where councillors were sent on free trips all round the world, and had so many business lunches and were said to have consumed so much alcohol that they could not stand up, let alone work. We would also be able to contrast the behaviour of the Doncaster councillors with that of the Leader of the Opposition, who travelled to the United States by Concorde on a free trip.
Mr. Newton: I have noted the various reports that have appeared in the press about such matters, and I fully understand my hon. Friend's concern. I hope that that concern will be noted by those on the Opposition Front Bench, as it appears to be a matter at least as much for them as for me.
Mr. Greville Janner (Leicester, West): Did the right hon. Gentleman hear the Prime Minister saying today that there was not a shred of evidence that the unemployment figures were fiddled? Will he refer to early-day motion 525, which has been signed by more than 50 Opposition Members?
[That this House draws attention to the Government's fraudulent unemployment figures which ignore the latest Labour force Survey which shows unemployment about 302,000 higher than the Government's claimant count and further ignores the findings of the Employment Policy Institute that the number of jobless people who say that they want a job is well over four million, and not the 1.8 million registered by the Government's deliberately flawed claimant count; and calls on the Government to come clean on the true level of unemployment and the job insecurity and human suffering that unemployment causes in pre-election Britain.]
In the light of that information, should we not have a debate as a matter of urgency, so as to point out the disgraceful fact that there are more than a dozen exclusions from the claimant count? We could also make clear the need for an honest answer on the unemployment figures before the election, and an end to the lies that are presaging that election.
Mr. Newton:
I have already observed to one of my hon. Friends that I see the attraction of a debate on
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