Q5.
To ask the Prime Minister when he plans to make his first visit to Liverpool.
I am making a series of visits to all parts of the country and hope to include Liverpool in them.
When the Prime Minister visits Liverpool will he meet some of the local trade union leaders and some of the long-term unemployed, especially the construction workers who lobbied Parliament last week? Unemployment is very high in Liverpool. My constituency has the highest level in England, Scotland and Wales with an average of 30 per cent. When the Prime Minister arrives, will he let people know that he is coming? His predecessor, the right hon. Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher), crept into Liverpool and crept out again without letting people know that she was coming. That was an insult to the people of Liverpool and I hope that it will never be repeated.
I will certainly bear that in mind. I share the hon. Gentleman's concern about unemployment in Liverpool and elsewhere. I know that he will join me in welcoming the announcement yesterday by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Treasury at the start of the project to construct a new building for Customs and Excise at Queen's dock. When completed, it will provide more than 800 new jobs locally.
Will my right hon. Friend give his assurance that, neither explicitly nor implicitly will any deal be done at Maastricht?—[Interruption.]
Order. It will have to be done in Liverpool, I am afraid.