Angela Smith
Main Page: Angela Smith (Liberal Democrat - Penistone and Stocksbridge)Steel Industry
Angela Smith ExcerptsUrgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Sajid Javid
May I thank the hon. Lady for taking part in the steel summit on Friday? She will know that one thing we talked about was support for workers, and I welcome the creation of a taskforce in Scotland. As I said, we will support that and help in any way we can. She is absolutely right to emphasise that we must do everything we can for the workers who have been affected and their families, and that is certainly the way that we will move forward.
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
Clearly, urgent action is needed to stem the flow of job losses in the steel industry, and what the Business Secretary has had to say today is woefully inadequate. What is even more inexplicable is his refusal to commit to a long-term strategy for the future of the industry. Elsewhere in government there has been a commitment to a 25-year strategy to secure the future of food and farming, so why can he not do the same for steel?
Sajid Javid
I thank the hon. Lady for joining the steel summit on Friday. We collectively discussed the issue of strategies, procurement and pipeline, and the whole supply chain. I hope she will be reassured that since that meeting we have already, for example, set out a metal strategy, which has steel as a very important part of it.