Category: Prime Minister (1990-1997)

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the South East, made during an interview held in London on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked what he would be doing to end the tube strikes in London].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think it is remarkable the way so many Londoners have found their way to work in these difficulties and I warmly congratulate them on doing so. I don’t think this tube strike is justified under any criterion one can think of. The unions on strike have not honoured an agreement they reached last year, they won’t go to arbitration, and frankly the strike weapon, and the way they are using it against the interests of people not involved in the dispute – the passengers – I think is disgraceful. The best thing I believe that we can do for Londoners, both in the short and the long term, is to stand firm and resist this industrial blackmail.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked whether it was useful to condemn the strike and asked if the management were to blame].

PRIME MINISTER:

If it is the management who have reneged, why are they prepared to go arbitration, and not the union? If it is the management who have reneged, why is it that the union have not honoured their agreement of last year? The fact of the matter is that it is the union that has decided to have the strike and withdrawn its labour and I think it should be condemned. Of course they should go to arbitration, and not only go to arbitration, I think they are justifiably condemned for not doing so.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if strikes which affected public services should be stopped].

PRIME MINISTER:

If you look at what has happened over the past five or six years strikes, as an industrial weapon, have been dying out. They are not quite as extinct as the dinosaur, as we have seen with this unfortunate dispute, but they are falling away. And I believe increasingly people will come to see them as something that is just old-fashioned, out-moded and simply a weapon that should not be used. I think to let them fade away in this way is more likely to ensure that we have industrial harmony.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if some Conservative MPs would find such a ban electorally useful].

PRIME MINISTER:

We will look at manifesto pledges at a later stage. For the moment I would like to see this strike settled. I think it would help – you spoke of condemnation – if we had some condemnation from the other political parties. Thus far they seem to have been on a sponsored silence when it comes to condemning a strike that is damaging the interests of Londoners, damaging the interests of the underground and in the long-term damaging the interests of the workforce themselves. But not a word of leadership or condemnation of this particular issue has there been. I think there should be. Now we may have to look at other measures but at the moment I think the first thing is to get this strike settled and to make it clear to those on strike that this is just not a tolerable way to treat Londoners.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if he would consider legislation to end such strikes].

PRIME MINISTER:

I am not ruling anything in or out at the present moment. What I am saying is that the industrial relations legislation that we put on the statute book in the last 15 years or so has cut strikes to a level below anything we have seen before.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if the strike numbers were increasing again now].

PRIME MINISTER:

Then there ought to be some condemnation from the opposition parties. Perhaps they believe the opinion polls, perhaps they believe there might be a Labour government, perhaps they noticed the silence of the Labour Party in condemning the strikes, perhaps they think the strike weapon is one that can come back into force. Well if that is the position, I think they gravely mis-judge the people who are being abused by this strike – the Londoners finding it difficult to get to work today – and the way that they will feel about that. I repeat, strikes are old-fashioned, out-moiled and this is not a way, in the mid-1990s, that industrial relations should be conducted, where the passenger is put at risk, inconvenience and expense and the economy is harmed because of a strike that ought never to have taken place.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if he might intervene to stop the strikes].

PRIME MINISTER:

I have ruled nothing out.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if the strike was good for the Conservatives].

PRIME MINISTER:

We didn’t call this strike. I don’t want this strike. I have called for this strike to be ended. I wish the Labour Leader would call for this strike to be ended and condemn the people who have called it unnecessarily. But so many of their members are sponsored by the RMT, the Deputy Leader is sponsored by the RMT. Where is he speaking up for passengers today? He is nowhere to be seen, still as I said a moment ago on a sponsored silence. No, it is not convenient for the government. We have delivered over the last few years industrial harmony on a scale we have not previously seen in this century. Now I would like that industrial harmony to continue. The economy is improving, inflation is falling, unemployment is falling, we are beginning to see a rapid degree of investment both externally and internally. That is what is going to improve people’s livelihoods and the re-emergence of the strike weapon is not convenient. What does it say to countries abroad who invest in this country? It says are the old problems coming back? That is not in my interest and it is not in the interests of London either.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the North West, made during an interview held in London on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked when he would be visiting Manchester, as Michael Heseltine had already visited twice to monitor the repairs following the bomb damage].

PRIME MINISTER:

I expect to be at Manchester within the next few days, I am looking forward to coming and I think Michael will probably be with me. I would like to see for myself the damage that was created and the way it is now being handled and I think there is no substitute – even having the Deputy Prime Minister there – for seeing it yourself and that is what I propose to do.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if he would be offering financial assistance for Manchester].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think the first thing I want to do is to see what is happening. What we are clearly going to have to do is to look at a tripartite system, you may even say a quadripartite system – the Government, the European Union, the private sector itself and of course the insurance money – all of which will come together and we really need to see how we can produce the best possible use of those resources for the redevelopment of those parts of Manchester that have been damaged.

It was a dreadful event, it was an attempt to terrorise Manchester and predictably of course it failed, Mancunians would have nothing to do with that. Now we must see what we can do to correct the damage that was done and perhaps improve on what was there.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if the Government should be doing more for Manchester].

PRIME MINISTER:

The European money is British money, let us not deceive ourselves, it is British money that goes to the European Union and is then redirected back and that is why we have such a very large net contribution to Europe so don’t let us fool ourselves about that, it is British money that is coming into Manchester.

We need to see precisely what needs to be done, precisely what resources are required and precisely what are available. There will be a great deal of money of course that will come in from the direct insurance, there will be a great deal of money that will come in from the private sector to renovate it. What we need to do is to find out what needs to be done. At the moment we don’t know that. Just pledging a sum of money is neither here nor there. We need to see and then assess and then discuss with Manchester City Council and others what actually needs to be done to ensure that we cannot just replace what was there but improve upon it so this is going to be quite a lengthy business, it isn’t a question of a quick gesture of a few million here or there. We need to look at what can be done in the interests of Manchester, that may take some time but we will do it thoroughly.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why the Government paid for bomb damage in Northern Ireland, but not in Manchester].

PRIME MINISTER:

You don’t accurately describe what happens in Northern Ireland but I want to come and see for myself what the position is. Let me see for myself and then we can assess what the position is. That is the purpose of my coming, it is why Michael Heseltine has been not two, I think perhaps three times by now and there may well be more visits.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why half a billion pounds had been paid by the tax-payer to businesses in Northern Ireland which have suffered bomb damage].

PRIME MINISTER:

That is over a very long period and in very different circumstances. I don’t want to draw a comparison between Northern Ireland and Manchester. There is help for Manchester, there has been help for Manchester, there will be help for Manchester but what we need to do is to find out how best that help can be directed and to bring together all the agencies that can help renovate the areas of Manchester that have been damaged by this terrorist outrage.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why Manchester tax-payers had paid tax which had helped Northern Ireland but weren’t receiving any themselves].

PRIME MINISTER:

I have answered that question three times and I don’t propose to answer it a fourth time. I am coming to see what needs to be done. When we have seen what needs to be done, we can then have a cool assessment of what needs to be done and that is the way think we should approach it.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked when defence orders for the region would be announced].

PRIME MINISTER:

You don’t just produce defence orders costing £4 billion without a proper assessment and evaluation of those defence orders. They are very big defence orders. All three of the defence orders announced today will actually benefit the north west, Walton, Chorley, Manchester and other parts of the north west. They are very big orders, they needed a very careful evaluation. These are some of the biggest defence contracts that have ever been awarded. The evaluation has just been concluded, the decisions have just been made and they have been announced so there has been no delay in announcing decisions and they are very welcome news I think for the Armed Forces undoubtedly but also for many parts of the United Kingdom and especially Manchester who, as I indicated, will actually benefit from each of the three orders that have been announced today.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the North, made during an interview held in London on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about the sell off the child benefit centre in Washington and the 2,500 families concerned at the decision].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think you need to see why it is being done and what the impact of the policies in the Round are. What we are seeking to do, as the other parties have pledged they will do, though they won’t actually take the decisions, is to save on administration so that we can put the resources into benefits, into job creation or into whatever else seems to be most appropriate for the British economy. And that is what we have been doing.

You might equally have mentioned, for it is undoubtedly true in the north-east, about the enormous amount of inward investment that has been attracted because we have pursued frugal prudent policies of this sort.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if the jobs in Washington were safe].

PRIME MINISTER:

No, we are going to look at what is the most efficient way of delivering child benefit. If there is an inefficiency, we will seek to deal with the inefficiency. But what we do need to do is to make sure, in a social security system that spends over 80 billion a year, that we spend the taxpayers’ money – it is not my money, it is not the government’s money, it is your money, the taxpayers’ money – efficiently and effectively. And it is because we spend it efficiently and effectively that we get so much inward investment into this country because people abroad, looking at the way the economy is run, admire what is being done. And the north-east, if I may say so, has probably benefited as much from that inward investment – Siemens, Samsung, Nissan – as any part of the country.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if more private investment was now going to Scotland and Wales].

PRIME MINISTER:

No, I don’t think that is true, with respect. There are a large number of companies around the world that are still seeking to make international investment for one reason or another and are looking to the United Kingdom. The last two happen to have gone one to Scotland, and one to Wales. But it wasn’t very long ago that I was opening new investments at Burniston in the Midlands. And you know of course, I mentioned a moment ago, of the huge investments there have been in the north-east.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if he would help companies in the area].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think it is evident what we are doing to help companies. If you look at what has happened to unemployment across the whole of the United Kingdom, but certainly in the north-east, which traditionally has had a very high structural level of unemployment for a very long time, a very long time indeed, and yet we are now seeing a whole range of new jobs, many of them small investments, many of them internally generated investments, some of them big external investments, which create a wider spread of new jobs for the present generation of people in the north-east than their parents and grandparents could ever have dreamed of. And that is what I very much wish to see.

To take a single example. If you were to go anywhere around the United Kingdom and see a city that has changed infinitely for the better in the last 15 years or so, I think many people would fasten on Newcastle as a supreme example of a city that has changed infinitely for the better.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why the Conservatives were formerly in control of Newcastle City Council, but now had no seats on the Council].

PRIME MINISTER:

It is ironic, isn’t it? If you go back 20 years ago and ask people in the north-east whether the north-east has improved materially, their well-being has improved over the last 20 years, I don’t think any dispassionate observer would deny the fact that that is the case. And yet the government that has delivered those particular improvements seem to be unpopular electorally in the north-east.

I think the reason for that is because we have had to take a lot of unpopular decisions that are unpopular in themselves but collectively create a better economy. You mentioned the Child Benefit decision, maybe that is a good case in point, but collectively they produce a better economy. The unpopularity of those difficult decisions tends to linger and yet the response to the improved circumstances has not yet begun to filter into the body politic. I believe it is doing so. I think you can begin to see a change in people’s attitude and in the political atmosphere and I am sure that will continue to change in the months ahead.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the South, made during an interview held in London on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why nobody believed the economy was doing well].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think you only have to look around and if you say why does nobody believe me, go and try and find a restaurant in London and see if you can get in, have a look at how many people are taking flights to go abroad on holiday, have a look at how many people will actually be buying new cars in August. There is the tangible proof. Have a look at the unemployment figures, they are pretty tangible proof as well. They are now coming down for the fourth successive year. I don’t think you or anybody else can name me another European country in which that is happening. So the reality is that the economy is beginning to perform excellently, there is yet another report out in the last few days making that point absolutely clearly.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why people felt insecure].

PRIME MINISTER:

I believe that people have had a sense of insecurity through the recession. And daily of course people point insecure matters at them. If you will forgive me making this point, you put the points to me negatively, you don’t say to me that the British economy is doing better than any other economy in Europe. Yet that is true, you know it is true, I know it is true. Yet it is the negative aspect that so often makes the news. I believe what people will continue to see is the reality of what has happened – unemployment continuing to fall, inflation well below 3 percent, staying below 3 percent, going to go below 2.5 percent; our growth as high as anyone in Europe last year, this year and going to be as high next year; massive inward investment. These things are beginning to come together in a way we have not seen for 30 or 40 years and I don’t believe that the reality of what is occurring in our economy can be hidden for very much longer. It is becoming apparent to people.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why the Government wasn’t trusted].

PRIME MINISTER:

You make that assertion, I don’t know upon what basis you make that assertion.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was told that it was true].

PRIME MINISTER:

That may be your personal view, you are perfectly entitled to your personal view but that is the assertion that you make.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if taxes had risen].

PRIME MINISTER:

If you actually look at the tax burden you will find it has actually fallen since 1992. That is a reality of life and you need to look at that. Many people who are paying more taxes are paying more taxes because they are in a higher income bracket – that is why their taxes are higher. Those people who move into a 40 percent tax bracket pay more income tax, that is the progressive system we have always had. And so one ought not to distort that in terms of the general position. We are in favour of reducing taxes. In order to reduce taxes you need to hold down expenditure. I look for the support from people for holding down expenditure so we can continue to reduce taxes, not just direct taxes but also inheritance taxes on people’s property and other taxes that affect people.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if voters in the region would back the Conservative Party in a General Election].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think the big idea that people wish to see for themselves and their family is the security of their employment, improving the education system for their children with better choice than ever before. I take the view that education is an absolutely key issue for this reason. In our country there are millions of children. They are all original, they are all diverse, they all have their own interests. We ought not to squeeze them in a regimented education system. We want an education system that is diverse so that it can cater with the diversity of our children. That is why I would like grant-maintained schools, that is why I favour more selection, that is why I favour some grammar schools, some schools that concentrate on perhaps the sciences, or English, or even sport. Not the return of the 11-Plus, as our critics so dishonestly allege, but an increasing diversity so that the education system that we have matches the demands of the children in this country. Very important. You might call that a big idea. No-one has attempted that for some years. We are doing it.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about the single currency].

PRIME MINISTER:

We have got to make a decision on what is right for this country. There are an awful lot of people who want to cut off that decision because they are running their own agenda. They want to say now, in advance of knowing the facts, in advance of being able to influence the debate, that we will do either one thing or the other. I have a particular responsibility as Prime Minister, to represent what is right for this country. Uniquely I have negotiated a position where the United Kingdom can say ‘No’ if others go ahead, and other countries cannot necessarily do that if they meet the criteria. Now it would be folly to throw that unique advantage away.

A single currency, if it proceeds, is going to affect our country, whether or not we are in it. I ask you a simple question – should the British government have a voice in those decisions or should it throw that voice away? I think, since we are one of the most powerful nations in Europe, we should have a voice in that decision, and that is what I intend to have. And those people who are inviting me to throw away that voice, that influence in a decision that will affect us whether we are in the single currency or not, are wasting their time. They may continue to try and follow their own agenda but they are wasting their time. Our job is to influence all of Europe and you cannot do that if you stand by and let other people run the debate.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about devolution for the Isle of Wight].

PRIME MINISTER:

You will be unsurprised to know that I don’t think it is a very good idea. I gather the Liberal Democrats are running this idea, I don’t know, very possibly within the Isle of Wight they will then propose devolution for a particular Parish Council, I can’t imagine. No nonsense seems to me to be too silly for them. I don’t think the people of the Isle of Wight will take that as a very serious proposition, I think they are much too sensible to have much to do with that sort of Liberal Democrat idea.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on East Anglia, made during an interview in London held on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked why people still felt insecure about the economy].

PRIME MINISTER:

I know there are people who are concerned but if you actually look at what is happening in terms of employment you see that we are the only country in Western Europe that has had unemployment falling for four successive years and that is certainly true of course in my own region, in the Eastern Region, where there is the occasional black spot but across the region it is down to 6 per cent, the lowest in the United Kingdom and a massive growth also of small businesses and self-employment.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about those local people who didn’t feel secure in that way].

PRIME MINISTER:

I wonder whether that is as true as you say. If it is, I wonder why it is increasingly difficult to get into a restaurant in the Eastern Region, if that is the case I wonder why so many people – I think probably up to half a million people across the country, not just in the Eastern Region – will be driving in new registration cars in August. That suggests a return of confidence and self-confidence and a range of other things: the changing spending pattern in the shops, yet again today we have seen a major building society reduce its mortgage rate now the lowest for 30 years so a lot is happening that is beginning, I think, to restore confidence to people.

We have been through a recession that was very difficult, so have the rest of Western Europe. The rest of Western Europe has not recovered as we have. We now have growth higher than them, we have inflation going down towards 2.5 per cent and will fall – that hasn’t happened elsewhere but it is happening here.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about the 500 people who lost jobs in Northamptonshire and the nearly 700 in Peterborough the week before].

PRIME MINISTER:

I wonder how many people in the same period have obtained employment in East Anglia because always, even in the midst of the most raging boom, there are companies that succeed and companies that fail. The overall balance at the moment is that companies are succeeding and that unemployment is falling and we have seen that very definitely in East Anglia. If you have a company that loses 500 jobs, that is a single package, you can see it very easily, but all over East Anglia companies are employing an extra 5, 10, 15, 50 extra people and yet that isn’t so evident and it doesn’t get so much publicity and so much reporting but that is what is happening and that is why the overall level of unemployment is, I am glad to say, continuing to fall.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked that although it was accepted the economy was improving, would it be that got the credit for improving it].

PRIME MINISTER:

Then you must help them, mustn’t you? Instead of perhaps asking the negative questions, we could look at it the positive way round. One could easily say: “Why is it that the United Kingdom is doing better than any other nation in Western Europe?” One could easily ask that question and the answer is because of the policies we have followed that are not policies followed by other countries across the European Union: we don’t have a social chapter, we don’t have a minimum wage, we do have a relatively low tax structure compared to the rest of Europe, we do have open markets to encourage inward investment and as a result of those policies and a number of others our economy is outperforming others. We are the most competitive economy in Western Europe and why is that? Because we have taken difficult decisions, painful decisions, sometimes very unpopular decisions but they are beginning to work.

You are about to talk of the feel-good factor, I could sense it coming! I think people can see increasingly the fact that life is getting better for them and for other people and whereas they said two or three years ago: “Well, I don’t like that decision, that is very unpopular!” – and we were very unpopular for doing it – they are now beginning to see that those decisions are paying off, that they have changed the economic and industrial climate and I believe they have.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked that although people might accept the feel-good factor the indications are that they are not necessarily giving the Government the credit].

PRIME MINISTER:

But which indications are they?

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was told it was research by Kleinwort Benson].

PRIME MINISTER:

Ah, research! I think one needs to see what is actually happening across the country. I have, if I may say so, heard on many occasions in the past that a particular government isn’t getting credit for something. Governments between elections are there to be kicked, that is the way the British conduct their public affairs.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked whether it was actually near an election and not between elections].

PRIME MINISTER:

No, we are not coming up to an election very soon. We will have an election before 1 May next year but that is not very soon, that is almost one-sixth of a Parliament. Within a few weeks of the French presidential election, the winner of that election was a long way behind; in the last two presidential elections in the United States the winning candidate was miles behind the losing candidate just before the election.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked whether he was being complacent].

PRIME MINISTER:

I am not being complacent at all, I am just indicating to you what happens and what has happened. I seem to remember being asked seven days before the last general election what I was going to do after it because the Tories were so far behind we could never win the last general election. Well we did, we won it with the greatest number of votes any political party had ever got.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked whether he was now further behind in the polls].

PRIME MINISTER:

We weren’t this far behind a week beforehand, we were this far behind a year or so before the last general election most certainly and I think people need to see the way things are changing.

We will go into the next general election with the best economic position that any British Government has had in facing a general election since the Second World War. That is the position we will go into the next general election in and people will recognise how that has come about – of that I am certain and I do not believe they will wish to put it at risk.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the East Midlands, made during an interview held in London on Thursday 25th July 1996.

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QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if the East Midlands was the fastest growing UK region because of Government policy or local efforts].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think it is a bit of both, to be honest. Certainly the East Midlands had a very difficult time and many people have used their initiative, invested a good deal of self-employment, a good deal of small employment. There has also of course been a great deal of assistance to that with the nature of the economy and a certain degree of inward investment. I was for example at Burniston recently where there is a very substantial increased investment. So I think it is both. But I certainly pay tribute to the initiative of local businessmen.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about the areas of high unemployment that still existed in some parts of the region].

PRIME MINISTER:

There are problems in places like Mansfield, the former coal sites which are no longer operating, and we do wish to see what we can do to get more work back. We have provided, I think, through the European Union, something like 60 – 70 million pounds, I forget the exact figure, for the regeneration of those coalfields. Though I say that is European money, it is actually British money that goes to Europe and is then recycled. And I think we need to encourage more people to go to those areas. It can be done.

If I can give you an illustration, not from the East Midlands. But you will recall Ravenscraig closing and that was an absolute disaster for the area at that stage but there was no market for the steel. And now of course all those jobs have been replaced with inward investment and regeneration within the area, and that is what I hope we will be able to achieve. The East Midlands generally is beginning to do very well, but there are still some blackspots that we must concentrate on.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked how he was helping the East Midlands].

PRIME MINISTER:

The enterprise zones are there and they are delivering. They do take a time and maybe they haven’t created as many jobs in the short term as people might have anticipated.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about Sherwood Park, which had meant to provide 4,000 new jobs, but had so far created 200 new jobs].

PRIME MINISTER:

It has promised 4,000 jobs and it will deliver 4,000 jobs. These sites have to be cleared, there needs to be planning consent, you need actually to build, you need to get the inward investment, you need to find the businesses to operate it. What actually happened was the collapse of a structural employment in an area. That is very serious. What we are replacing it with, and what we are determined to replace it with, is not a structural imbalance with a single big employer, and the difficulty for the area if that collapses, but a wide range of employment. And it does, I am afraid, take more time than is immediately comfortable.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked about the impression being that it would have a much faster impact on creating employment].

PRIME MINISTER:

You must forgive me if I can’t be responsible for the impressions that you might have got 4 years ago. We have sought to move forward and to assist as much as we can, both with the funding that has been put in there, the establishment of the enterprise zones and the measures that we have taken to encourage people to invest in the whole of the area. In much of the area, as the survey showed earlier this week that you mentioned a moment ago, the prospects for the East Midlands are as bright as anywhere in the United Kingdom and brighter than the East Midlands has known in the past. What we have to focus on now, and I agree with you that it is important to focus upon them, are a small number of black spots where there was an almost complete collapse of employment because what was happening there before was no longer required. That takes a while, but it is happening, it will be comprehensive and it will provide a much better future for those areas than they have had for many years in the past.