Mr. Fletcher-Cooke:

asked the Prime Minister if he will set up a committee of inquiry into the origins of the recent strike at Hardy Spicer Ltd.; whether he will give its members power to send for papers and persons; and if he will make a statement.

asked the Prime Minister what action he will take to ascertain the facts in trade disputes during the recent General Election alleged to have political motivation.

asked the Prime Minister if he will set up an inquiry into strikes, both official and unofficial, which took place at the time of the General Election; what form the inquiry will take; and what are to be its terms of reference.

asked the Prime Minister whether he will now announce the composition and terms of reference of a committee of inquiry into politically-inspired strikes during the General Election period.

At my request my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour is examining the facts in his Department about the Hardy Spicer dispute and about other disputes at the time of the General Election. In the light of this information a decision will be made.

Mr. Fletcher-Cooke:

Is there to be no independent inquiry into this very serious allegation by the right hon. Gentleman that there was some political motive behind these strikes? Is this inquiry to cover not only the Hardy Spicer strike but the British Oxygen strike in 1959, and no doubt other strikes in 1955 and 1951?

I think the House will agree that at this time there was plenty of ground for suspicion, in view of the fact that in three successive elections strikes affecting components of the motor car industry had started and caused widespread stoppages in the motor car industry, with a certain amount of evidence suggesting motivation in the case, at any rate, of the 1959 one. I think that probably hon. Members would agree, if they saw certain television programmes about the Hardy Spicer dispute, that the reason for the dispute arose more from "blimpery" than political conspiracy.

Would the right hon. Gentleman say how long he expects the inquiry by the Minister of Labour to take and whether this pledge is to be another one completely ignored by the present Government because they now feel that it is completely inappropriate in the circumstances in which it was made?

I was asked at the time I made the statement what form an inquiry would take. I said that one possibility might be an investigation by the Minister of Labour. This has now happened.

When considering which election pledges to implement, will the right hon. Gentleman give particularly favourable consideration to this question? Would he agree that the allegation he made against the British Oxygen Company was a very serious one and that the late Mr. Morgan Phillips said in 1959 that he would not dream of suggesting a Tory plot in the British Oxygen works? Would the Prime Minister not agree that, in the circumstances, the fairest thing to do would be to set up the inquiry with full and searching powers that he promised?

I made no allegations whatsoever against the British Oxygen Company. If the hon. Gentleman will study all the facts, he will see that there were very serious allegations made against the motivation of certain of the shop stewards who were involved in that strike. That is not a reflection on the company.

Does the Prime Minister recall that he said he would set up a searching inquiry with full powers to act and that that is a long way from merely referring it to the Ministry of Labour. What is the reason for his change after the most specific statement which he made on three successive days?

There has been no change. If the right hon. Gentleman had shown a bit more urgency about this, we might not have had this dispute.