Orders of the Day — Steel Industry

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 January 1973.

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Photo of Sir Anthony Meyer Sir Anthony Meyer , Flintshire West 12:00, 25 January 1973

I cannot support the Opposition motion although I find myself in a measure of agreement with its concluding words.

The target for the steel industry as a whole to which hon. Gentlemen on the Opposition side have nailed their colours is, I am convinced—and I am even more convinced in the light of the debate so far—one which, were it to be attempted, would make our steel industry hopelessly uncompetitive in the markets of the world.

Furthermore, given what are now clearly the fixed ideas of the corporation in these matters, I cannot believe that even were this unrealistically large target to be accepted there would be any reprieve for Shotton and the other works that are threatened with rundown. Indeed, were this larger target to be accepted we would find some gigantic new Japanese-style venture set up and in consequence there would be even more closures and rundowns than are likely to occur within the present realistic target which I am convinced the Government were right to accept.

Having said that, I must say that I still believe that the decision not to provide Shotton with the new equipment that it needs in order to produce its own steel for finishing will turn out to be a catastrophic mistake and that the determination of the corporation to venture all on a few large new steelmaking complexes—for which it will necessarily have to recruit labour very rapidly from wherever it can—will turn out to be an unwise decision.

I believe that the readiness to allow the team of workers, which over many decades has welded together into what one might call a happy family of workers, to be dispersed is worse than a mistake. It is a crime. To illustrate the quality of that team at Shotton, I would say that any hon. Members who have had the privilege today, as I had, of moving among the lobbyists, both within the House and outside, cannot but have been impressed by their moderation, their good sense and their determination.

I believe that this decision, if it is persevered in, will turn out to be a catastrophic mistake. I still hope for a miracle and I think that the hon. Member for Flint, East (Mr. Barry Jones), in a very eloquent and sincere speech, did what he could, as he has done all along, to promote that kind of miracle. But we must be realistic about this, and if the miracle does happen there is still the certainty of the loss of 3,500 jobs at Shotton, even if we get the investment that we are fighting and praying for. Therefore, whatever happens, it is the responsibility of those who have the interests of North Wales and the North West at heart to think in terms of bringing new jobs to the area and bringing them on a scale hitherto undreamed of.

Flintshire cannot be allowed to become an area where rich commuters live in the surroundings of an industrial slum. This is the kind of socially explosive mixture which is so dangerous in the Third World. We do not want to introduce this kind of thing into the United Kingdom. We must have those jobs and I am satisfied that to the extent that it lies within their power—and the mistake that all of us make is to over-estimate the capacity of any Government to bring about the impossible—the Government are doing everything they can to bring in those jobs as soon as possible. If, as a result of all this, Flintshire should get what it has not yet had—that is, a genuine variety and choice of employment for its school leavers, a choice of well-paid, challenging jobs—that would be at least a measure of compensation for the very tragic times that the working people of Flintshire are at present undergoing. That is as it may be, but the point I want to make this afternoon is that we must have more time. As I have said. I believe that the Welsh Office is making heroic efforts to rise to the challenge of the hour, but it is wildly unrealistic to imagine for one moment that new jobs can be created on this vast scale on the same kind of time scale as is evidently envisaged for the rundown of steelmaking at Shotton, which I gather is scheduled to begin probably in 1975 and to be concluded by 1978. At the very least this whole operation must be set back by a minimum of three years, perhaps by some such device as the hon. Member for Flint, East suggested: a tandem scheme to enable the workers of Shotton to go on producing raw steel without the kind of massive investment which would really be necessary in order fully to modernise the works.

I believe that if Shotton were given this kind of reprieve, if we could gain another three years and if we could have the very limited amount of investment which would be necessary to enable the workers of Shotton to continue during those three years, to go on producing steel as they know how, they could once again astonish the whole steel world by their achievements, by showing the kind of spirit which they have shown throughout and which they have shown in the lobby which they have conducted here today.