Dramatic Clash Of Leaders In Commons

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 17

Dramatic Clash Of Leaders In Commons

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, November 13. A tough, slogging battle on basic policy issues between the British Government and the Opposition will begin in Parliament today. The parties will be getting down to a grim struggle to win favour with the voters before the General Election on the second day of the vital final Parliamentary session before election.

Yesterday saw the first dramatic encounter in the House of Commons between the new Prime Minister, (Sir Alec DouglasHome) and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Wilson).

Sir Alec Douglas-Home challenged Mr Wilson to declare whether Labour would abandon control over Britain’s independent nuclear arms if it won the election He served notice he would make Britain’s independent nuclear force a key issue at the election. In an attack on the Government, Mr Wilson demanded to know what economic policy and organisation changes were proposed to ensure “this pre-election boom” did not grind to a halt. The clash between the two leaders was the climax to a display of Parliamentary tension unparalleled for many years. Both men received rousing ovations from their respective parties. They set the scene for today's closer examination of party policy.

The chief speaker on the Government side will be the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Maudling) and facing him on the Opposition benches will be Labour’s deputy leader (Mr Brown). Mr Brown is expected to follow up the Labour claim that the Conservative programme represents an “election spending spree.” Political observers said the pattern of the coming battle was expected to be one of Labour attacks largely on domestic issues, and Government counter-attacks on such matters as the nuclear force. Yesterday, Mr Wilson swung straight into attack on the Conservatives’ record and on the new Government. “Boom Held Back” He claimed that it was now forcing on “at fever heat” an election boom which had been “carefully fostered and carefully held back for a couple of years while the country suffered.’’ He said the Prime Minister regarded the general election as having already begun. Mr Wilson described the British political upheaval of the last few weeks as “this orgy of de-Stalinisation.” He said: “We have had two weeks, with the House

not sitting, of government by television and press statements.” They were two weeks in which the Government and the “sycophantic press” could behave as though the slate which bore the record of the last 12 years (of Conservative rule) had been wiped clean by a change of Premiership. He conceded merit in some of the Government’s domestic proposals contained in the Queen's speech, but attacked others. There was . a good deal about housing, but not a word about how land was to be made available, about how the racket in profiteering was to be stopped, he said. Frequent Interruptions The new Prime Minister had a fairly rough passage at the Opposition’s hands in the first part of his speech, which was devoted to domestic policies. He was frequently interrupted, and his delivery tended to be hesitant. But he got into his stride as soon as he reached foreign policy. The Prime Minister said Britain would ' no longer have a place at the peace table as of right if she abandoned nuclear weapons He said the Government subscribed to the North Atlantic Alliance; but nuclear weapons would remain ultimately under British control. If Britain abandoned nuclear arms now. it would be irrevocable. She would never get back into this business.

“I intend, in due course, to put the question of Britain's independent deterrent to the electors,” he said. Wilson Questioned He asked Mr Wilson: “If you were Prime Minister, would you abandon control over independent nuclear arms? Would you repeal the Nassau agreement under which we get the Polaris submarine, the most powerful second-strike weapon in the world? “If you answer that the British deterrent is not independent, are you really going round the country questioning the good faith of Britain’s greatest ally? “If Mr Wilson is really going to abandon control over the nuclear arm, he must go to the country plainly as saying so,” he said. The moment Mr Khrushchev gave evidence that Russia would no longer use force, or threats of force, as national policy, then the West would have the opportunity to create “genuine and real” co-existence, he said. If it was true the Soviet Union was no longer ready to run the risk of war in pursuit of its Communist

aims, then “prospects for peace are improved.” The Liberal leader (Mr J. Grimond) complimented the Prime Minister on his “physical performance.” Any previous suggestion the former earl was “languid or hothouse’’ had been dispelled by his speech, he said.