Economic and Energy Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18 December 1973.

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Photo of Mr Peter Walker Mr Peter Walker , Worcester 12:00, 18 December 1973

No, I cannot give way.

As regards oil, from the very beginning when the first announcements were made after 15th October I made clear to the country that, if necessary, I would introduce petrol rationing, and I announced that we were enjoying substantial stocks and that further oil supplies were available across the sea. I have already said at this Dispatch Box that the future remains uncertain: nobody can accurately predict what will take place.

I was originally advised in November that our imports of crude oil would probably be 8 per cent. down on what was expected. In the event, they were not down at all. I was advised that there would be a reduction of 15 per cent. in imports of crude oil in December. I again said that the position was uncertain, though I suspected that the position might be better than was thought. The latest figure is that we shall this month be 10 per cent. short in our imports of crude oil and not 15 per cent. short.

For January, against an estimate of a 20 per cent. shortage, the current prospect is that there will be an 18 per cent. shortage of crude oil. Finally, we decided during a review of imports of certain manufactured products to take a certain action. We did so before almost any other country in Europe or outside. We have managed to pursue a policy which has kept our stocks at relatively high levels in most of the major spheres of activity. We first of all took the decision to make the 10 per cent. cuts based on last year's figures. Those cuts are in operation at present. Last week our stocks of petrol actually rose and did not go down as they normally do at this season.

One sphere in which we face potential difficulty, although we still have tolerable stocks at present, is that of fuel oil. In this respect, in view of the increasing shortage of coal, we have had to divert a considerable amount of fuel oil for the benefit of power stations. The decision in terms of a three-day working week was based not, as the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition suggested, on some political move, but on the prospect—as I advised my Cabinet colleagues, on the best information I had—that if the present loss of production in the coal mines continued in the coming weeks, by the middle of January we should be facing cuts from the power stations which we could not control, with all the potential dangers of that situation, and that within two or three weeks after that it would bring industry to a total standstill. I therefore advised my colleagues that it was essential to reduce the power from the power stations by 20 per cent. so long as this position continued and we were not getting normal supplies of coal.

The tragedy of the present situation is that not only are we not getting the supplies of coal, which is resulting in this major disruption of industry, but we have aggravated the shortage of fuel oil by using it instead of coal. If we were getting full production from the mines, we could have been saving in our power stations up to 50 per cent. of the fuel oil normally used. This would have made an enormous contribution.

When they say that no warning was given, I remind the Opposition that when the coal strike—[Interruption.]—when the overtime ban first took place and the Government sought to take emergency powers, it was not we who were complacent about the dangers of such a disruption—it was the Opposition. It was the Opposition who claimed that it would hardly bring about any disruption. There is quotation after quotation showing that this is what hon. Members opposite thought. On 13th November I said: If 13 million tons of extra coal is used by the Central Electricity Generating Board, this could save the country 6 million tons of oil at this crucial time. This is a time when the effects on power as a whole could have a considerable impact on the potential growth and our whole export performance. This is a time when it is vital for the industry to recognise the damage which it will do to its own future.'—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 13th November 1973; Vol. 864, c. 285.] That is in stark contrast to the complacent words of the Opposition.

At that time, the Opposition Front Bench specifically stated that they were against the miners going for a ballot of their own. The hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Varley) said categorically on 13th November that he thought it wrong for the miners to go to ballot on this issue. Why did the Leader of the Opposition change his mind last Friday? He said then: I would support a nationwide ballot of the mine workers, even though moderate miners leaders feared that it might produce a devastating result … The right hon. Gentleman wanted it then despite the fact that he thought that it would produce a devastating result.