Oral Answers to Questions

Anneliese Midgley Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

9. What recent progress his Department has made on introducing an industrial strategy.

[Anneliese Midgley (Knowsley) (Lab)]

12. What recent progress his Department has made on introducing an industrial strategy.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)]

14. What recent progress his Department has made on introducing an industrial strategy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jonathan Reynolds]

It is also great to see my hon. Friend in her place. I enjoyed working with her in her previous role in local government, and she brings all that expertise and achievement with her to this House.

I wish to embed our industrial strategy for the long term. I want to focus it on long-term, sustainable, inclusive and secure growth that will cover many sectors of the economy, as my hon. Friend has mentioned. That will mean the Government having to work in partnership not just with business, but with civil society, trade unions and local and regional leaders in a way, to be frank, that we have not been doing for some years. We will make sure, as she requests, that that is a priority, and is visible in the work that we do.

[Anneliese Midgley]

A Labour Government brought secure, well-paid working-class jobs to Knowsley with Ford Halewood. My dad getting a job there changed my family’s life and lifted us out of poverty. It did the same for thousands of families like ours. Does the Secretary of State agree that any successful industrial strategy must provide good-quality, unionised jobs to lift living standards in areas such as mine?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

It is also a pleasure to welcome my hon. Friend to her place, and I thank her for those comments, with which I thoroughly agree. This is what it is all about—good work and good wages in every part of the country. I will work with anyone to deliver that. Her personal story shows the difference that such a policy can make. I often reference, for instance, the difference that Nissan’s investment made to communities in Sunderland. When such investment is made and got right, it delivers long-term benefits for communities and for the UK—more so perhaps than any other policy area. If we want to address, as I do, the UK’s profound regional inequality, policies such as these are so important, so I thoroughly endorse her comments. The industrial strategy is only one part of the growth mission, but it is at the heart of the pro-worker, pro-business agenda not just of my Department, but of the whole Government.