To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

Does the Prime Minister of manufacturing recall that this time last week he did not know the names of the two major competitors of Rolls-Royce and that his ignorance shocked my constituents? Will he join me in condemning the 24 per cent. and 35 per cent. pay increases for the chief executive and chairman of Rolls-Royce at a time when the company is sacking 5,000 skilled workers, including 170 in my Constituency?

I have spoken before of my admiration for Pratt and Witney and General Electric. As for the wage increases to which the hon. Gentleman referred, if he were here more often he would know how often I have set out my views on that subject.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

I know that, unlike the Jeremiahs in the Labour party, the Prime Minister will welcome the news on the unemployment figures that has been announced today. Will he also welcome the freezing of the uniform business rate that was announced on Tuesday, which will further help job prospects?

I am certainly happy to do that. The Budget was a Budget for business, as my right hon. Friend the Chancellor said. The freeze on business rates will help about 800,000 businesses. Nor was that the Budget's only boost for business. The chorus of welcome for the Budget from business speaks for itself.

How does the Prime Minister justify to the nation a Budget which, over the next three years, will require the poorest tenth of people to pay proportionately twice what the richest tenth will have to pay to bail the country out of his Government's financial failure?

The right hon. Gentleman has clearly failed to notice the substantial increase in the proportion of the burden that we are asking people on higher incomes to bear. He has neglected that. I hope that he will join his hon. Friend sitting beside him who earlier this week said: I am in favour of taxes on things that pollute.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that many Conservative Members take grave exception to the heavy-handed behaviour of Chinese Government towards the Governor of the Hong Kong? Will he take up with the Chinese Government their threat to set up an alternative government for Hong Kong, and will he remind them that the whole international community expects agreements to be honoured?

My hon. Friend is entirely right. The British Government stand four square behind the Governor and Government of Hong Kong. The Governor has acted sensitively, resolutely and correctly, and we shall continue to make that clear to the Chinese Government. In doing so, we shall underline three points: the Governor has acted entirely within the terms of the documents that we have agreed with China and we expect the Chinese Government to do likewise; the Governor's proposals for greater democracy are widely supported in Hong Kong, in the United Kingdom and in the international community, and I believe that they have wide support across this House; we and the Governor have gone the extra mile in our efforts to consult China. We remain ready for talks without pre-conditions, but no one should doubt that the Governor has our total support.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

Does the Prime Minister accept that Budget day will be remembered for many years as Black Tuesday? It was the day of taxes on heating, taxes on beer, taxes on petrol and taxes on cars. Will the Prime Minister tell the House and the Country how many more taxes we shall have to endure before, mercifully, we get to the next General Election?

It will certainly be a tax on Labour's ability to win that election when it comes, for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has put in place the right structure to make sure that we get back the growth, the jobs and the prosperity that we seek. If the hon. Gentleman had been a little more gracious he might, unlike anyone else on the Opposition side, have welcomed not only the drop in unemployment but also the new £100 million manufacturing centre for car components at Wednesbury near Wolverhampton.

Will my right hon. Friend convey the congratulations of all Conservative Members to his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security on his speedy clarification of the help that will be given to those on income support and low-pay pensioners? Will he also please look very closely at the position of the nearly 1 million pensioners who do not claim the income support to which they are entitled, as well as those whose income is very slightly above income support level? If my right hon. Friend could find some way of helping those people to pay the extra VAT on fuel, that would be a major step forward.

I know that my hon. Friend will agree with our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that it is right to concentrate extra help especially on the poorest households. He will also know that other benefits will automatically increase with prices through the normal uprating mechanism, and my hon. Friend at least—if not the Opposition—will join us in welcoming the fact that fuel prices have fallen in recent years.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

In view of the tax changes announced on Tuesday in relation to mortgage tax relief, will the Prime Minister state whether the Government intend, during the lifetime of this Parliament, to phase out tax relief on mortgages?

No. We made it clear earlier that we would retain the system, and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor set out our immediate proposals.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 18 March.

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

My right hon. Friend will be encouraged by the welcome given by the Manufacturing and Construction Industries Alliance, to which he recently sent a message of support, to the boost to British exporters from the £1·3 billion of extra export credit announced in the Budget, but will he acknowledge the growing concern about the erosion of our manufacturing base? Will he seek to have published the report on these matters prepared by the Department of Trade and Industry which has recently been the subject of much press speculation?

We have not only, of course, extended ECGD but my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has cut premiums over the past few months by as much as 27 per cent. in order to help exporters. We have over recent weeks announced a wide range of policies specifically geared to improve the prospects for manufacturing, both the efficiency of existing manufacturing and the widening of the manufacturing base. I made it clear earlier this week that the paper to which my hon. Friend refers was private advice to Ministers and will not be published.