Orders of the Day — Unemployment

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 24 July 1978.

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Photo of Mr Harold Walker Mr Harold Walker , Doncaster 12:00, 24 July 1978

I should like to hear from the hon. Member for Chingford (Mr. Tebbit) during the course of the debate, and perhaps from the right hon. Member who is to wind up the debate, whether the Employment Protection Act is so unsatisfactory and, if it has such damaging consequences, exactly what they propose to do. The right hon. Member for Lowestoft (Mr. Prior) has undertaken that he will not introduce any major changes without full consultation. That is a very interesting statement, because it carries the implication that there will be major changes. If the Tories ever have the opportunity to practise what they are now preaching, I hope that the consultation will not be the kind of consultation which Lord Carr carried out with the Trades Union Congress on the Industrial Relations Bill. There was consultation in that case, but the basic proposals were unchangeable and inviolable.