Budget Resolutions
Baggy Shanker Excerpts(1 week, 3 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
I welcome this Budget as it cracks on and delivers for our kids, for our NHS and for hard-working families up and down the country. Importantly, it also delivers for Derby. It is no wonder the Tories do not like it.
I have said it before and I will say it again: in Derby, we are proud to be a city of makers. What we build in Derby keeps our country and beyond powered, but for far too long, people in our city from Alvaston to Arboretum have put in a shift but still are left struggling and find it hard to make ends meet. For years, they have been left to face the grinding reality of Tory austerity, and it is hurting. They are left to pay sky-high energy bills, left waiting for their kids’ education, health and care plans in a buckling special educational needs system, and left out of our city’s success as a manufacturing powerhouse.
It is not right that families are turning to food banks because their pay packet does not cover the essentials any more. It has left Derby telling a tale of two cities. Whether it is raising the minimum wage, freezing train ticket prices, freezing prescription fees or knocking £150 off energy bills, this Budget is cracking on with tackling the cost of living crisis for families in Derby and across the country—not sometime in the future, but now.
Instead of accepting that in some parts of our city the majority of kids will live in poverty, the Labour Government have said enough is enough: enough of families paying the painful price of Tory austerity, and enough of kids going to school on empty stomachs. By scrapping the two-child benefit cap, we will give 5,500 kids in Derby South a better start in life. Nationally, we will lift 450,000 kids out of poverty. That is the difference a Labour Government make.
That is not all. The Budget also delivers for young people as they take their next steps in life, because university is not for everyone. It was not for me, and I want every young person in Derby to know about the opportunities that apprenticeships can offer them in getting on. To take up the opportunity and run with it, apprenticeships need to be available for them in local businesses and in the local area. This Budget delivers exactly that. It commits £725 million for the growth and skills levy to help support apprenticeships for young people. They are this country’s future. That funding includes fully-funded SME apprenticeships for eligible under-25s. We know that when we back our fantastic young people, the whole community benefits.
This Budget delivers for the whole of our city by backing the Team Derby initiative. The Tories underestimated and undervalued Derby for years locally and nationally, and that left our community feeling locked out of our city’s success as a manufacturing powerhouse, but I have always been on Team Derby, and this Government are, too. We are committed to making sure that record investments in our city’s industry also work hard for our community, delivering the change that residents want and that they can see. I thank my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and my right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister for backing families, backing business, backing our young people and, importantly for me, backing Derby.
Nuclear Power: Investment
Baggy Shanker Excerpts(6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Ed Miliband
As part of the process that we go to from here, Great British Energy Nuclear will look at what is the right place for the SMR fleet and, absolutely, Oldbury is one of the candidates.
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I also wish you a happy birthday, Mr Speaker. What a wonderful day today is proving to be. As a proud Derby MP, I am delighted to welcome the selection of Rolls-Royce to deliver the first of the UK’s small modular reactors. We know that the Secretary of State, his ministerial team and the Mayor of the East Midlands are champions of clean energy jobs. Does the Secretary of State agree that today’s decision is good news for the country and for Derby? Also, in backing home-grown SMRs, what will the benefit be for UK workers and those in the east midlands region?
Ed Miliband
I thank my hon. Friend for his advocacy for Derby and for Rolls-Royce. It is important to say to the House that this was a fair and open competition, conducted at arm’s length from Ministers. Rolls-Royce came out as the winner and I am incredibly pleased about that. The possibilities for Rolls-Royce are huge in what it can do for SMRs in this country, in the export opportunities and in the jobs in the supply chains. That is the thing about nuclear: it is about the jobs not just at the top of the tree but right across the supply chain that we have the potential to create.
Oral Answers to Questions
Baggy Shanker Excerpts(7 months, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Ed Miliband
The hon. Lady asks an important question. I was in touch with the National Energy System Operator yesterday following the events in Spain and Portugal—the UK was not affected. NESO and my Department take this incredibly seriously. I would also add, given that there has been some comment on this, that we should not jump to conclusions about what happened. Let us see what happened and the reasons for it, and then learn the lessons.
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
Ed Miliband
My hon. Friend is right: this clean energy transition is about creating jobs. I was delighted to open the factory, which is creating 200 jobs and is a £40 million investment, manufacturing cylinders for heat pumps. This is an opportunity that this Government are going to seize for Britain.
Oral Answers to Questions
Baggy Shanker Excerpts(1 year ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
Baggy Shanker (Derby South) (Lab/Co-op)
Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
Michael Shanks
I congratulate my hon. Friend again on his appointment as Chair of the Select Committee—he brings a huge amount of knowledge and experience to the role—and I agree with him about the importance of reviewing electricity market arrangements. We are building on the last Government’s consultation, and we will have more to say in the months ahead. This is a crucial element of how we achieve clean power by 2030 and ensure that our energy system of the future is fit for what will be a different way of managing energy throughout the country. We will have more to say about that in the months ahead.
Baggy Shanker
Last week a report published by the National Energy System Operator noted that although the programme to roll out new small modular reactors was being developed for the mid-2030s, a 2030 roll-out date would in fact be possible. Given that SMR technologies hold exciting and significant potential for investment in jobs and infrastructure in constituencies such as mine, has the Minister considered the value of bringing the roll-out forward to 2030?
Michael Shanks
My hon. Friend is right to say that nuclear will play a vital role, and that it not only delivers on our energy security but creates good, well-paid jobs. Unlike the last Government, who in 14 years did not deliver a single nuclear project—there were many consultations and processes, but not a single nuclear power station was built—this Government are getting on with delivering a nuclear future.