Defence
Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Brian Leishman(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
Order. Forgive me; I was slightly distracted. We now have a speaking limit of eight minutes.
Brian Leishman
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This will be a tough enough listen for many in the Chamber to hear it just the once—I do not need to do it three times.
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the doomsday clock forward. We are currently sitting at 85 seconds to midnight: the closest the world has ever been to ending. We live in a time of great political turmoil—of that, we are all certain—but the debate about ramping up defence spending, and making cuts to public services to do it, has been going on for decades. The suggestion of reinstating the two-child benefit cap so that we can have more bombs and weapons is against everything that I believe in. We have seen austerity that has created immiseration and poverty up and down the United Kingdom. Then we had a pandemic, with an explosion in wealth inequality. Now, a cost of living crisis has taken hold to the extent that most of the public think it will never end. All of that means deteriorating living standards. The social fabric of our country has been ripped apart—this is life in the world’s sixth-largest economy.
Pursuing economic growth and improving people’s living standards are the right thing to do, but thinking that militarism is the way to achieve that is at best misguided; at worst, it will further jeopardise global security. It also makes little economic sense. Military spending has one of the lowest employment multipliers of all economic categories: it is 70th out of 100 in terms of the employment it generates. Energy, agriculture and food, chemicals, iron and steel, and construction all have far greater employment multipliers than military spending—for example, health is 2.5 times more efficient than military spending for job creation. British military spending supports less than 1% of the UK workforce. So let us not kid each other: it will not be working-class communities who benefit; it will be weapons manufacturers.
Defence is neither a UK-wide industry, nor does it massively help small or medium-sized businesses, as they only secure approximately 5% of all orders. Ministry of Defence figures highlight that defence employment is densely concentrated in specific geographical pockets of the country. Instead of bombs and weapons and talking about a defence dividend, what about what Tony Benn called a “peace dividend”? That is all about making political choices.
Oil and Gas
Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Brian Leishman(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)
I would like to draw the House’s attention to my membership of Unite the union.
I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds): the framing of this debate is somewhat misleading. The Conservatives and Reform have no real desire to lower people’s bills; nor are they interested in saving jobs or the prosperity of working-class communities. We can see that from looking at history. Let us look at the coalmines: right hon. and hon. Members on the Conservative and Reform Benches would have been on the side of Thatcher, MacGregor, Ridley, Walker and Heseltine. This debate is really about Tory and Reform Members revelling in the free market. The only extraction they really care about is that of corporate profit and shareholder dividends.
I am ideologically opposed to the Conservatives and Reform UK, but what really pains me is being at odds with my own party. I have been clear that there should be no ban without a plan, and there really must be a plan, because the danger is that oil and gas workers will become the modern-day coalminers. Thousands of workers are nervous about what the future holds, and they are right to be—they have seen billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and the Chinese state company PetroChina close the Grangemouth oil refinery, ending 100 years of Scottish industrial history. The Conservative Government did not want to know about the issue, and the SNP Government refused to engage with Ratcliffe, the Chinese and the trade unions that represent the workers even, though they knew about the planned closure for three years. The SNP abandoned the workers in the Grangemouth community.
Some £434.5 million has been committed for Grangemouth’s industrial future from this Labour Government—I have had to fight tooth and nail for it. The excellent news is that 500 jobs in the chemical industry have been saved, and that Project Willow is starting to deliver new jobs through the MiAlgae and Celtic Renewables announcements. However, I say to the Minister that the Government must match their ambitions with much more action. That means providing thousands of good, well-paid jobs and getting the new industries we need into Grangemouth and other industrial towns like it. There is still more than £190 million available in the National Wealth Fund for my constituency—we should start using it.
I also say to the Government that it is common sense to take at least some form of ownership in these new clean, green industries. They should break the cycle of reliance on private capital, foreign ownership and volatile fossil fuel markets and do more of what a Labour Government should.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
For the final Back-Bench contribution, I call Gregory Stafford.
Business of the House
Debate between Nusrat Ghani and Brian Leishman(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Ind)
As an enthusiastic but error-prone goalkeeper, and having been a golf professional for 23 years, many will say that I have still to find a sport that I am any good at and they will be absolutely correct. Someone from my constituency who is excellent at sport is Ruby Henderson from Sauchie. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Ruby for winning a silver and bronze medal at last week’s taekwondo youth world championships in Croatia?