Oral Answers to Questions

Perran Moon Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Peter Kyle]

It is quite extraordinary; after just a couple of weeks in the job, I have announced £230 million of deregulation every year—£1 billion-worth between now and the next general election—and what do the Conservatives do? They say that we are not going far enough. They had 14 years; I have had a couple of weeks! It is about time they started coming up with better questions, and stopped criticising a Government who act where they failed to.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Meur ras, Mr Speaker. Spinning out of the industrial strategy is the eagerly awaited critical minerals strategy, the launch of which will happen in due course—or dreckly, as we say in Cornwall. It is of particular interest to my constituency. Canada, the US and Australia have already established new mineral exploration funds. Such funds support junior exploration companies in building up energy security and contributing to export-led growth. Is the Department considering such a fund as part of the critical minerals strategy?

[Chris McDonald]

I thank my hon. Friend for his continued advocacy for the Cornish critical minerals industry—in fact, I thank all our fantastic Cornish MPs. He knows that the critical minerals strategy is eagerly anticipated in Cornwall and across the UK. The minerals in Cornwall are crucial to the future of our critical minerals industry and the security of the UK. We have the largest lithium deposits in Europe; we need to take advantage of that. We will look at all options to ensure that we get the financing to exploit those minerals.