Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14th March 1973.
No. The right hon. Gentleman made great play of questioning the morality of councillors who sell council houses and, indeed, condemned them. I remind hon. Members that it takes two to make a bargain. If we are to condemn those who sell council houses we must surely go the rest of the way and condemn those who buy them. In my area of Waltham Forest that would mean condemning many Labour councillors, who bought their houses under the Tory Government policy, and if that is a crime they doubled their crime when they reached power by refusing to sell to anyone else. I do not know where Labour MPs stand on the issue. Is it a crime just to sell council houses or a crime to buy them as well? If it is a crime, then it is a crime for the purchasers, particularly if they are Labour councillors who refuse to let anyone else get in on the act?