Oral Answers to Questions

Brian Leishman Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman’s points about good value for money and accountability are really important. They are embedded in the work we are doing with the NHS at the moment, which is improving on our watch—not only the waiting lists, but in other respects. The 10-year plan for the NHS, which is intended to ensure that the NHS is fit for the future, has a number of principles, including the principle of local accountability.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

Q12. On 11 June, Alexander Dennis announced that it was planning to stop bus manufacturing in Scotland. My hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) and I have met the workers, the trade unions, the company and both UK and Scottish Government Ministers to see how closure can be averted. Alexander Dennis needs commitments to orders for 2025 and 2026, and elected mayors are ideally placed to do this. Our industrial strategy is right when it says that where things are made, and by whom, matters. As such, can the Prime Minister assure Alexander Dennis and the workers that he believes bus manufacturing should have a future in Larbert and Falkirk?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this matter. It is a deeply concerning time for the workers and their families in Falkirk. I agree with him, and we are working with mayors and local leaders to develop a pipeline of future orders for zero emission buses, which is an important aspect of this issue. The Minister for local transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), is hosting an urgent meeting of the bus manufacturing expert panel.

While Labour mayors in England are ordering Scottish buses, the SNP is ordering buses from China, just like it ordered ships from Turkey and Poland, not from Scottish shipyards. The SNP should be backing Scottish workers.