Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Battery Manufacturing Strategy
Debate between Chris Elmore and Kwasi Kwarteng(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng
It would be a great outcome, and I am not going to make a partisan point about it. There are MPs of different political stripes across the hon. Gentleman’s region, as we have seen in these questions, who are very keen to develop this kind of technology.
I am always very happy to engage with colleagues across the House in order to get the right outcomes. It is not just a question of the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne); there are MPs in his area across the House representing midlands seats very ably, and I am very happy to engage with them on this.
Chris Elmore (Ogmore) (Lab)
Happy St David’s day, Mr Speaker. If you will indulge me, may I thank you on the record for the letter that my wife and I received on the birth of our son, Henry? He was a month old yesterday, and I am pleased to say that he is thriving.
Chris Elmore
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Dare I say that face make-up keeps me going?
The Secretary of State has had lots of bids from Members across the House, from all parties, on battery development. I think that I can go one better. On 10 February, the Prime Minister announced to the House that Bridgend would have a world-beating battery development plant; it was later clarified by No. 10 that perhaps the Prime Minister misspoke or mixed up his Bs—Bridgend and Blyth, two very different parts of the country.
May I ask the Secretary of State whether he would agree to meet me and, indeed, the hon. Member for Bridgend (Dr Wallis), to discuss the options for a battery plant for the Bridgend borough? My constituents have lost the Jaguar Land Rover contract with Ford, which has now gone, and Ineos has run away to France with the Brexiteer who runs that company, so we need the Government to look at bringing in real investment to keep those highly skilled jobs in my borough.
Kwasi Kwarteng
My view is that that issue, which is critical for the United Kingdom, is something on which I am willing and happy to engage with Members across the House of Commons. It is too important an issue for narrowly partisan views, and of course I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and discuss opportunities to drive investment to power the net zero transition.