Miss Mervyn Pike: We regret the need for this Motion today because we have never had any desire to make political capital out of problems of misery and misfortune. We do not question the Government's intentions. Everyone in the House, unless we are knaves or fools, is here because we care deeply about the welfare and well-being of our fellow men and women. We all recognise that it is very easy to wallow in the...
Miss Mervyn Pike: That is just not true. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will stay and listen to what I have to say. Maybe I can convince him.
Miss Mervyn Pike: I ask the hon. Member for Bristol, South (Mr. Wilkins), too, to listen to the debate and perhaps play a constructive part in it. If, before the Budget, anybody had told anybody in the House that it would contain no proposals whatever for dealing with those in poverty, he would not have been believed. I accept that we cannot have increases in benefit all across the board. We have been saying...
Miss Mervyn Pike: We did not do a lot of talking and promising. If the hon. Gentleman wants to see some action, he will see it when we are in office with my right hon. Friend the Member for Bexley (Mr. Heath) as Prime Minister.
Miss Mervyn Pike: I also read the Labour Party's 1964 and 1966 election manifestoes, in which it said that it had its policies and plans ready. We are still waiting, two and a half years later, to see what they are. We have not only had the advantage of many articles in the Press, but of many "leaks", I think inspired, about the different plans the Government are supposed to be considering. Maybe these "leaks"...
Miss Mervyn Pike: The hon. Gentleman knows that we have outlined our policy. He knows the basis of it. Perhaps I went too fast at the beginning of my speech. Perhaps I am too eager and too anxious about this matter. Perhaps he was not listening. I will tell him, briefly, that, with an increased growth rate and by giving the money where it is really needed, we can do a tremendous amount of good. Let us be...
Miss Mervyn Pike: I am glad that the right hon. Lady is not looking surprised; she is looking pleased. A person who becomes chronically ill with multiple sclerosis gets a lower rate of benefit than someone who becomes ill or disabled because of an industrial disease or accident. Similarly, the widow whose husband dies from multiple sclerosis gets a lower pension than the widow whose husband dies from...
Miss Mervyn Pike: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will make every effort to catch your eye, Sir, and that he will make a very eloquent speech. It cannot be very convincing, because the facts are not on his side.
Miss Mervyn Pike: No.
Miss Mervyn Pike: I do not wish—
Miss Mervyn Pike: I do not want to do anything to take from the hon. Gentleman chances of catching your eye later, and making the eloquent speech that he has been making from a sitting position for the last five minutes. This is not just a rescue operation, it is social policy, and this is what the debate is about. It must seek to strengthen and enrich the quality of our national life. The principles on...
Miss Mervyn Pike: If the right hon. Lady reads her own election address, she will recollect that she said that she would give increased benefits out of the increased growth rate and would not have to increase taxes. If we get a Conservative Government, that is what will happen.
Miss Mervyn Pike: I know that the right hon. Lady has a lot to say, but I would like to get this clear. She promised that she could do all this without increasing taxation because a Labour Government would get a better growth rate. I am saying that we got a good growth rate. She has not achieved it. I can do it, she can not.
Miss Mervyn Pike: No.
Miss Mervyn Pike: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. I was not in any way suggesting that this would be a major aspect of the solution to the problem. I was facing the fact that we all recognise that, as the hon. Lady has said, these maintenance grants are very different over the country as a whole, and that this is unfair. Equally, I was asking the question to which she, too, might pay attention:...
Miss Mervyn Pike: I intervene briefly to welcome the Bill and to add my congratulations to those of other hon. Members to the hon. Member for Bebington (Mr. Brooks) not only for introducing the Bill but for the excellent way in which he addressed the House. In welcoming the Bill I must express some regret that it is not a Government Measure. This is probably one of the most important social questions we are...
Miss Mervyn Pike: Before the hon. Gentleman sits down, may I refer to one point, on which I did not really wish to intervene in his argument, about helping people in rural areas. Would he agree with me that one of the best ways to help would be to get fuller co-operation with the maternity and hospital services, because so many people in the rural areas have their children in hospitals and maternity homes...
Miss Mervyn Pike: Would the right hon. Gentleman agree that this is the result of our having the right priorities and doing things in the right way?
Miss Mervyn Pike: Is not it churlish of the Minister not to agree to see this deputation, in view of the disquiet that exists over this matter? Will he agree to see these people, since no harm could be done and a lot of good might result?
Miss Mervyn Pike: Is it not a fact that, far from there being an extension of this service, there is grave danger of cuts being made in it because of grants to local authorities being cut?