24th Ma 1979LABOUR EURO CAMPAIGN? PR SS CONFER FJNC

Present

1,1r. Callaghan, Mrs. Castle, Mr. Benn, Mr. Heffer,Mr. Ron Hayward (in the Chair).

General Atmosphere

A disagreeable and rather spartan loft at the back of aSalvation Army Hostel. Well atten e around 70 press andtelevision men and 4 television cameras). Callaghan was low-key, and made an extraordinary gaffe, in the context of "nomore wars between European States", of saying 11 when hemeant and irritatingly tried to silence Julian Havilandin a sequence that was televised on the ITN lunchtime news.

Mr. Benn was also rather low-key, trying hard not tocause embarrassment, and only Mrs. Castle showed any spirit.

Course of the Conference

Callaghan opened with a long and largely innocuous state-ment on what the elections were about. He emphasised the needto reform the CAP, suggesting that other countries, in particularMediterranean countries, were more inclined to support us; alsothe need for preserving fishing rights and securing budgetaryreform. He suggested that there was a favourable set of circum-stances at present which should enable these reforms to beachieved, and if they were not achieved in the course of thelifetime of the Assembly and the present British Parliament, itwould be "a most extraordinary situation".

1He then waxed lyricali about the need to work out, in co-

operation with other Socialist parties, policies to meet theemployment problems as a result of the world recession andtechnological change. He referred to reducing working hours,providing more re-training for workers displaced by new tech-nology, more support for industries affected by the new tech-nology and giving assistance to the regions.

While opposing any attempt to turn Europe into a FederalState, he wanted us to be constructive but critical. He didnot want the Assembly to spend all its time on economic matters:its value lay in giving the European peoples more understandingof each other.

Mrs. Castle stated that the Labour Party was entering thecampaign in a fighting mood despite the difficulties; the

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publicity campaign had not made much impact. "`le do not wantThatcher policies to triumph in Europe any more than theyshould at home." She repeated the smear that the majority ofConser-vati ve candidates were working farmers, and condemnedthe failure of the EEC to investigate the growing power of themulti-nationals and the growing surpluses of foodstuffs. Theseelections provided an opportunity to examine what has happenedsince the referendum of 1975, and how much of what the Communitypromised then has been carried out (she did not refer to thefact that a Labour Government has been in power since 1975; itwas of course under her Rt. Hon. friend Mr. Callaghan, whosacked her).

Lir. Benn emphasised the widespread support for Labour'sManifesto, and their desire to work towards the creation of awider, much looser group of European States.

_Jr. Heffer emphasised Labour's support for internationalism:it was not anti-European and not Little-Englander. He deploredthe tendency to use the expression "Europe" to describe theCommunity (presumably because the Community excludes his friendsin Eastern Europe).

Questicns

Callaghan was asked about the threat in the Manifesto toleave the Community if reforms were not achieved. He repliedthat this would not arise in the lifetime of the currentAssembly because there was a Conservative Government, andrepeated "it doesn't arise".

He said he was going to Paris to meet with the leaders ofthe various European Socialist parties, and was going to discusswith Willy Brandt whether any of them should come here.

e was asked whether he supported the Manifesto, andstated that he gave it general support but was not on thedrafting party.

Mr. Benn was asked about North Sea Oil, and said that ifBNOC were transferred to private ownership as the new CanadianPrime Mlini..ster was proposing to transfer its Canadian equivalent,we would be disadvantaged in supplying our EEC partners.

There was an exchange over reconciling the threat to leavethe Community with Callaghan's support for membership of theCommunity, and he and Hayward became petulant. Mr. Heffer saidall the Euro candidates supported the Manifesto. Callaghanquoted a sentence in support of staying in the Community fromLabour's programme in 1976 (a very rare occasion on which hehas quoted that discredited Labour document), and Julian Havilandasked him about the sentence in Labour's programme "with theresult of the 1975 Referendum, the debate on Britain's member-ship is now over." Callaghan testily refused to be drawn (thiswas shown on television).

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There was a question about the corn.-nitment in theManifesto not to devalue the green pound "by any more than thedevaluation of the pound sterling". The platform loosed dumb-founded by this question, and eventually 1,Ir. Bern confessedthat he did not know much about agriculture. Finally Mrs.Castle said it simply moant that we would refuse to back thedevaluation of the green pound in isolation from the reformof the CAP.

DAVID NICHOLSON

Circulated to:

1.1rs. ThatcherSir Geoffrey HoweLord CarringtonSir Ian GilmoreMr. Peter I alkerMr. James PriorLord ThorneycroftMr. Douglas HerdMr. Alan HowarthMr. Sandy WalkerColonel JoynesUr. Graham WynnIiIi,. ss Katherine Marsh

Conservative Research Department, DJN41JEB24 Old Queen Street , London, SVJ1. 25.5.79