UK Steel Strategy Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateEuan Stainbank
Main Page: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)Department Debates - View all Euan Stainbank's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
(1 day, 13 hours ago)
Commons ChamberAs I have mentioned, we have been supporting the Dalzell plant. I also refer the hon. Gentleman to the fact that we have a National Wealth Fund for the entire United Kingdom. Many billions of pounds will now be unleashed to renew our country, including Scotland, which would be bereft of that funding should it be taken out of the United Kingdom and denied access to it.
Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)
I welcome the Government’s steel strategy. The welcome ambition for the steel sector will be shared by industrial communities across the country, especially in Motherwell. Industrial communities such as those in Falkirk and the Forth valley must see similar ambition. Today is the one-year anniversary of the publication of Project Willow, so will the Secretary of State commit from the Dispatch Box to redoubling his Department’s engagement with prospective investors in Grangemouth, trade unions, the Grangemouth future industry board and local Members, so that the jobs and industry that the project promised our community materialise at pace over the coming years?
My hon. Friend speaks to many different sectors and industries, all of which we have stepped in to support since coming into office. We are investing in their modernisation and putting them on a sustainable footing for the future. He asks me to redouble my efforts—I have redoubled my efforts every day in this job. He will see from how my Department and I acted when Jaguar Land Rover had its hour of need and when Grangemouth needed support and investment, and from today’s steel strategy, which I announced on a visit to Port Talbot just yesterday, that this is a Government who seek to modernise and to protect where necessary, but always to invest in the future.