Employment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 December 1975.

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Photo of Mr Eric Heffer Mr Eric Heffer , Liverpool, Walton 12:00, 17 December 1975

It is the custom for many hon. Members to say that they do not wish to follow the speech of the previous speaker, but I should like very much to follow that of the hon. Member for Rochdale (Mr. Smith).

This is a debate about unemployment. At the 1974 Labour Party conference the Prime Minister made a speech about unemployment which I think sums up the view of the entire Labour movement. He said: None of us joined this party, devoted our lives to this party, to make it the party of unemployment. We reject that solution emphatically, decisively, once and for all. I want to speak about the human side of unemployment. I was brought up, as were many other hon. Members, during the years of the depression. I should like to tell the members of the Scottish National Party that one of the most profound experiences in my life happened when the Glasgow unemployed, supported by Englishmen who were also concerned about unemployment and the effects of the capitalist system, marched to London and stopped in my town on the way to explain to us the terrible crisis that they faced in Scotland.

Since then, I have become a Member of Parliament for Liverpool. In Liverpool at the moment, 10·6 per cent. of all workers, male and female, are unemployed. That means that in my constituency and other Merseyside constituencies there are whole streets of workers in which a quarter or more are unemployed. My hon. Friend the Member for Ormskirk (Mr. Kilroy-Silk) represents Kirkby, where 25 per cent. of male workers are unemployed.

It is interesting to note that the report by the police about Kirkby said that despite all the problems of unemployment there was no racial or religious conflict there. I draw that to the attention of the SNP. The problems that we face on Merseyside are just as great as those in Scotland. I do not want to boast about that, because it is a tragic fact. But these matters are not a question of nationality. Some English areas suffer just as much from unemployment and slum clearance problems as does Scotland or Wales.