European Economic Community

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 7 June 1962.

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Photo of Mr Peter Roberts Mr Peter Roberts , Sheffield, Heeley 12:00, 7 June 1962

In listening to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Stechford (Mr. Roy Jenkins) I felt that before he was interrupted he was to a certain extent tilting at windmills. There are none in the House but there may be some outside. I do not think that the alternative is the Commonwealth, on the one hand, and Europe on the other.

I disagree with my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Hertfordshire, East (Sir D. Walker-Smith) to this extent: we were right to go into these negotiations last August and to have this opportunity of seeing how the discussions have continued. Having listened to the interim report yesterday and today, I cannot help feeling that much has been given away in principle and not very much gained. We seem to have given away the principle of the 20 per cent. common tariff reduction; in the discussions which we have had on manufactured goods from the Commonwealth; and as far as I could follow the Minister of Agriculture last night, we have committed ourselves in principle to some operation of price control which—the kindest thing I can say—seems quite unworkable. In any event, if it works it will involve such an enormous pile of bureaucrats that I believe that it will become extremely frustrating. Those of us who have considered the Coal and Steel Community also feel that if we enter that there will be a great increase in bureaucratic control over those industries.

We also see in the negotiations a new move to accept some form of political evolution. Those who think that we may be able to guide or to restrict the political federal aspirations in Europe are wrong; if we go into this, we must do so with a knowledge that we shall work together with our partners both economically and politically. I warn those who think that we can go in with the idea of trying to restrain a political development towards federation in Europe; but I am certain that, as the right hon. Member for Huyton (Mr. H. Wilson) said, that would lead to a state of destruction.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hall Green (Mr. Aubrey Jones) made a starry-eyed speech yesterday, but it did not come down to the practical effects upon our industry and our economy. I want to look at the likely short-term effects of this union upon British industry over the next five or ten years. This has not been brought out in the debate so far, although there was a reference to the financial approach of the City of London. It is fair to say that at the moment, by and large, the feeling of the financial centre of the City of London is in favour of joining the Common Market.

If, however, one looks at industry there is a different picture. The Lord Privy Seal said that the 20 per cent. tariff reduction had been accepted by industry. This must be taken with a great deal of circumspection, because we have many facets in industry. First, we have the civil service of industry, the paid directors of the associations, who are the officers of the people who employ them. By and large, they are in favour. Next, there are the leaders of the great combines in industry, and by and large they are in favour because they appreciate that if we go into the Common Market it will be a battle of the giants and will lead to cartels and building up big combines. But hon. Members in their constituencies are beginning to feel that there is a certain reservation from the smaller manufacturers. These are people who do not have a lead in the great federations and associations of industry. We must think about them, and also about the workers, who will be very much affected in the next five or ten years if we go into Europe. We have not given sufficient weight to this.

I want to talk, first, about wages and, secondly, about production. Leaving aside questions of comparable wage rates, I believe that the British workers enjoy a higher standard of living than a great many comparable workers on the Continent. I will give only one example, because I do not want to take up time. Let us compare a steel worker in Sheffield with a steel worker in Luxembourg or a coal miner in Durham with a coal miner in the Ruhr. They all receive a wage of about £17 a week, but the Continental worker has to pay £2 10s. a week more in rent and possibly a £1 a week more for food. This means that the British worker has an extra £3 10s. to spend, and by and large these workers have bought themselves two things, motor cars and television sets. Hon. Members must appreciate that if we go into the Common Market on an equal basis and find fierce competition, and if the European worker is content to go on his bicycle to work and not to have a television set in his house— hon. Members have only to go to the Ruhr or Luxembourg to see this—then either our workers must give up their motor cars and television sets or they will demand more money to keep the instalments going.