Oral Answers to Questions

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas]

I had thought that one of the first contributions from the Opposition Front Benchers today would be to celebrate the £1 billion investment by IKEA in the UK. It is opening its flagship store on Oxford Street today, and committing to a range of investments in other towns and cities across the UK. When the hon. Lady was on the Treasury Committee, I do not know whether she looked at the cuts the previous Government made to help for small businesses in getting their goods into new markets. We are taking active steps to increase the opportunities for small businesses in overseas markets.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

2. What steps his Department is taking to negotiate trade agreements with the UK’s main trading partners.

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

I announced in July that we were resuming free trade agreement negotiations with the Gulf Co-operation Council, India, Israel, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Türkiye. We have also begun talks with the United States on an economic prosperity deal, and we support the Cabinet Office with trade aspects of the EU reset.

[Ellie Chowns]

Given the utter unreliability and, frankly, economic illiteracy of President Trump, and given that the EU is by far our largest trading partner, it is clear that the best interests of the UK are served by our having a deal that allows the closest possible co-ordination with the EU. Does the Minister agree with me that that should cover youth mobility, and improved energy and climate co-operation? Specifically, will he work with his colleagues to ensure that we ease burdens for British business by linking the UK and EU emissions trading schemes, and by aligning on chemicals regulation, to boost British productivity and prosperity?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I think that was a few questions, but we seem to have time for them today, so I welcome all of them. First of all, I recognise exactly what the hon. Lady says. When it comes to the importance of the EU as a principal trading partner for this country, the figures speak for themselves. I disagree with her about us having to choose between the US and the EU, or any other markets. I believe that the UK can be well positioned for all markets. There will be strong political views in this place about political leaders in a range of countries, but I would just say to her that when it comes to the United States, there are potentially thousands of jobs at stake. That is why we are pursuing a trade and economic prosperity deal with the US, and I think we cannot get away from that.

On the questions relating to the EU, a successful negotiation takes two parties. I want to see greater co-operation. I would not talk about the specifics of any part of the negotiations, but I would not want the kind of barrier that she identified to be in place. I want the UK to have the best and most frictionless trade possible with the EU, in a way that is consistent with our aspirations and obligations with the rest of the world, but she has made her point very well, and I recognise it.

Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

We are happy to look at a range of options. The whole point of the clean energy plan is that we are using a very diverse range of interventions, some of which are more high-tech and for the future, and some of which are well established. We need that mix.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Given the huge economic and environmental effects of burning fossil fuels, it is clear that the future of energy has to be clean, green, cheap renewables, plus energy efficiency. All of us who care about fact-based, truth-based politics should call out the outrageous misinformation from those who suggest that net zero is the reason for high energy prices, when it clearly is not. Gas prices have gone through the roof in recent years, and we all know why: because of Putin’s outrageous invasion of Ukraine. That is why companies and businesses are struggling.

There are two specific things that the Government can and should do to help precisely those businesses: first, decouple the price of electricity from gas so that the true costs of generating electricity are reflected in the price that consumers pay; and secondly, implement a carbon tax in order to be able to use those revenues to assist industries to make the just transition from fossil fuels to the clean, green, cheap energies of the future.

[Sarah Jones]

The hon. Lady is right to point out that there is a lot of misinformation in this space, and it is often used by the Conservatives to hide their own failings in government. Of course, the energy price hike that we had was partly because the previous Government had not delivered the security that we needed in our home-grown energy supply and storage. We are looking at all options to make sure that we have the right systems in place going forward. We already have the emissions trading scheme, and we are looking at where that goes in future years. She is right to point out that we need to look at all these things.

Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Steel is strategically vital for the UK and the foundation of our industry. We could and should be producing much more of it domestically. Steel is also integral to the green industrial transformation that is essential for our future. Wind turbines, trains, rail tracks and electric vehicles are key elements of the sustainable future for our economy.

The Green party believes that public ownership is the best solution in this case, because only public ownership would give us the control that we need to ensure a proper strategic, long-term plan for the renewal of the steel industry not just in Scunthorpe but nationally. None the less, we will be supporting the Bill.

We do, however, need to think long term. We have an opportunity to reprocess far more of our waste steel to feed our industry, instead of exporting it. We have an opportunity to use the skills of the communities in places such as Scunthorpe to drive that green industrial transformation. Moreover, the Government have an opportunity, a need and a duty to use not just this Bill but the other levers that are available to them to support this crucial strategic industry.

As the Secretary of State has just acknowledged, electricity prices, because they are locked to gas prices, are kept too high. We need to decouple electricity from gas. As the hon. Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) mentioned, we should be introducing the carbon border adjustment mechanism at the same time as the EU—a year earlier than currently planned—to protect our steel industry. We should be making use of anti-dumping mechanisms to prevent the dumping of steel that is sold on the global market at below cost price. We should be using industrial and innovation policies to support the development of innovations—which were referred to by the hon. Member for Stockton North (Chris McDonald), who clearly knows a great deal about the industry—that will be the future of the steel industry. We cannot just patch up our old technology. We should be looking to the future and considering what innovations we need to produce clean, green steel as the foundation for that green industrial transformation?

UK-US Trade and Tariffs

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

My hon. Friend is right; Bracknell has some tremendous businesses, such as Honeywell, Dell and 3M, so he will be seeking to promote and defend particular constituency interests. I have had tremendous support for the approach that I have mapped out today not just from UK businesses but from US businesses as well, particularly those with an economic relationship with the UK. Right now people are seeking evidence that countries around the world are trying to deal with this difficult situation in the right way, in their own national interests but also in a way that gives us an opportunity to strengthen rather than weaken those important trading relationships.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

It is clear that the UK needs to show some backbone in standing up to the US President’s bullyboy tactics on trade. The Secretary of State says that he is keen to negotiate a deal, but at what cost? What is he putting on the table? Can he assure the House that, in seeking a carve-out from President Trump’s tariffs, he is not prepared to offer President Trump and his big tech billionaire buddies an opportunity to carve up the NHS, our environmental and food standards, or our sovereign right to make our own decisions on taxing digital giants?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

The hon. Lady will have heard the answers I have given to some of the questions she raises, and the unequivocal assurances I have been able to provide. She talks about backbone—backbone and strength. Strength and wisdom are not opposing values. Backbone comes from putting our own national interest first, and negotiating on a basis in the interests of all our constituents, not bandying around rhetoric and escalating the situation. That, respectfully, is not the right way forward. The right way forward is to engage on national interest, make sure we are delivering and have the chance to find the right way through this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas]

One of the big issues that small businesses wanting to scale up face is access to finance. We are actively working across Government on what else we can do to support businesses to get access to the finance they need, including through the British Business Bank.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

In my constituency, a planning moratorium has been in place for more than five years due to water pollution, with an estimated effect on the local construction industry of half a billion pounds, despite the fact that new house building is a minute proportion of the problem. Will the Secretary of State meet me and representatives of the Herefordshire construction industry to try to find a solution to this devastating problem?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

The frustration that comes across in the hon. Lady’s question relates to exactly the sort of problem the Government are fixing. I would be more than happy to work with her and any Secretary of State or Department necessary to unblock that for her.

North Sea Energy

Ellie Chowns Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She was of course referring to the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Nick Timothy), who said yesterday that

�one of the things our party did not get right in government was setting ambitious goals on�energy policy without having a clear�plan to deliver them.��[Official Report, 5 March 2025; Vol. 763, c. 171WH.]

I entirely agree with him.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

I welcome the Government�s commitment to no new oil and gas licences, and to putting workers and communities at the heart of the transition to a climate-safe economy. It is a bit disappointing to hear that so many Conservative Members still live on planet flat earth, with an ostrich approach to our energy future when what we need is a phoenix approach. I would like to ask the Minister a specific question. Can she confirm that the 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent currently in the North sea will not be pumped? If it is, it would be the equivalent of running 15 coal-fired power stations from now until 2050. She will know the climate implications. Will she confirm that the Government will stop consent for new production?

[Sarah Jones]

Our manifesto was clear that we would not issue new licences, we would not revoke existing licences, we would manage existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan, and we would ban fracking. The consultation is about the detail behind that. There are some complicated issues that we need to unpick, which is why we are having the consultation, why we welcome everybody�s views, and why I hope the hon. Lady will add her voice to it.