Backing Business to Create Economic Growth

Frank McNally Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

I welcome the King’s Speech last week. In a volatile world, the question of domestic economic resilience is paramount. Whether it is the conflict in the middle east driving energy price instability, supply chain disruption or a rise in global uncertainty, Britain cannot afford inaction or simply to hope that global shocks will be contained or pass us by. We need an active concordat between Government, business and communities to strengthen our resilience and ensure our prosperity.

The King’s Speech set out an agenda focused on growth, investment, infrastructure, innovation and economic security. Crucially, it recognised that growth must exist not just in Whitehall spreadsheets or the boardrooms of financial institutions in the City; it must be felt in communities like Coatbridge and Bellshill. For decades, businesses—particularly small and medium-sized ones—have felt that the Government work around them rather than with them, so one of the most important measures announced in the King’s Speech was the small business protections Bill on late payments.

For too long, businesses have been pushed to the brink because they completed work and paid wages and suppliers, but waited months to be paid themselves. According to the Small Business Commissioner, late payments cost the UK economy £11 billion annually, with small business owners spending around 86 hours each year chasing unpaid invoices. That is time that is not spent innovating, hiring, exporting or growing. The proposed reforms include stronger powers for the Small Business Commissioner, mandatory interest on late payments and maximum payment terms, and they all represent a positive step.

I also welcome the regulating for growth Bill and the plans being put in place to place a greater emphasis on innovation. That is particularly important for emerging sectors like AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing and defence technologies. I certainly hope that the Government look to prioritise some of the R&D on clinical research for motor neurone disease—an issue that is very close to my heart.

Innovation matters greatly for post-industrial communities in North Lanarkshire, Scotland’s fastest-growing economy. We are already seeing there the potential of advanced industry and digital infrastructure, with Scotland’s first AI growth zone and companies like Cairnhill Structures in my constituency, which is rebuilding bridges in Ukraine that have been destroyed by Russian forces.

I welcome the support for clean energy investment and for securing domestic steel production, which reflects an understanding that modern economies cannot grow on weak foundations. Recent global events have exposed the dangers of over-reliance on volatile international energy markets, so expanding home-grown clean energy and supporting a new generation of nuclear power is not just sound environmental policy but sound economic security policy. Certainly in Scotland, the SNP should end its decades-long dogmatic opposition to new nuclear.

Growth is strongest and most sustainable when working people are secure, skilled and fairly paid. We have made great progress through the Employment Rights Act and the uplifts to the national and living wages, but we must go further, particularly on apprenticeships. It is a national scandal that apprenticeship starts for advanced manufacturing dropped by 40% under the previous Tory Government and by 30% in Scotland under the SNP. We have to redouble our efforts to end the erosion we have seen under Opposition parties, but we also have a moral obligation to support the 1 million young people who are not in education, training or work to reach their potential. That will be a critical act for transforming our economy.

This King’s Speech recognises that economic security, national resilience and living standards are deeply intertwined. It recognises that Governments have a responsibility not merely to observe the economy but to help to shape the conditions for growth, innovation and long-term prosperity. In a world that is becoming more uncertain by the day, that approach is not ideological—it is necessary.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call Olly Glover, who I believe was standing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Frank McNally Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris McDonald]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his work with the Bletchley investment taskforce. I know that businesses in his constituency, such as Envisics, Carnot and Pulsar, have benefited from the work he has done, and I would be very happy to ensure that he gets a meeting with the relevant Minister.

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

3. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote Scottish industry abroad.

[The Minister for Trade (Chris Bryant)]

Promoting Scottish industry overseas is one of our prime objectives. Whether it is opening up new markets such as India for Scotch whisky, securing new beef opportunities in the United States of America, securing contracts for Scottish steel in new bridges in Ukraine, or promoting financial services around the world, we are on the case. I have even seen Tunnock’s Caramels in LuLu in Doha.

[Frank McNally]

With up to £8.2 billion of private investment, the Lanarkshire AI growth zone delivered by this Labour Government represents one of the largest industrial investments in the history of Scotland. At its heart is a partnership between Lanarkshire’s own DataVita and the American cloud computing company CoreWeave. Such partnerships are critical to supporting the industries of the future, so what further steps can my hon. Friend take to promote Scottish companies overseas to secure such high-quality jobs and deliver even stronger growth?

[Chris Bryant]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work he has done to make sure that the UK Government have delivered in his constituency. I am glad that he has raised the Lanarkshire AI growth zone, because it is really important in trying to make sure that the industries of the future are at the heart of the jobs of the future in Scotland. I look forward to the SNP welcoming this in the next few moments.

INEOS Chemicals: Grangemouth

Frank McNally Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris McDonald]

I sincerely thank the right hon. Gentleman for welcoming the announcement. The season of goodwill really is spreading right across the House. He asks a serious question about the transition. We have made no bones about this: oil and gas is an incredibly important industry for the UK and will be for decades to come; but as the oil and gas basin declines, it is important that there is a transition. Fundamentally, that is the difference between this and previous Governments and the point of our industrial strategy.

The right hon. Gentleman mentions Robert Gordon University, which also identified that 90% of workers in the oil and gas sector have skills that are readily transferable into the 40,000 jobs that we are creating in Scotland in clean energy industries. That is in marked contrast with the SNP. In September, Professor Mariana Mazzucato—he may have heard of her because she was an adviser to the Scottish Government—said that the SNP Ministers in Scotland, on industrial strategy, talk the talk but do not walk the walk. This Government are walking the walk.

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

Is it not the stark and inconvenient truth for the Opposition parties that for years the Tories and the SNP sat on their hands and allowed the industrial needs of Scotland to go to the wall? Does my hon. Friend agree that, with this £120 million package, this Government are serious about backing our strategically vital industries as well as protecting thousands of jobs on the site and through our supply chains?

[Chris McDonald]

I do agree with my hon. Friend. It really is astonishing how the previous Conservative Government and the SNP Government in Scotland were prepared just to stand by and let the refinery at Grangemouth close after having been given data for years and deciding not to do anything about it at all. He rightly mentions the supply chains, and the multiplier of jobs in the supply chains is much greater. We recognise that this is a good investment for the taxpayer, not just to secure the vital product that we need in our chemicals and defence industries or because the ethylene plant is important in its own right, but to spread the economic benefits through the supply chains in Scotland and beyond.

ExxonMobil: Mossmorran

Frank McNally Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

This is devastating news for the Kingdom of Fife. May I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for her diligent work today and over a period of time on this issue?

Does the Minister share my frustration that despite attempts to fully engage with ExxonMobil over recent months, including through multiple ministerial engagement sessions, the Government were presented with no viable plan to save the plant by the company—despite, as has been highlighted, a £25 billion profit having been made by ExxonMobil last year? Will he outline what steps he will take, working with colleagues both in Scotland and other Government Departments, to ensure that the workforce receives all necessary support through the Department for Work and Pensions rapid response service and Partnership Action for Continuing Employment?

[Chris McDonald]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend and colleagues for how they have engaged so carefully on this issue for such a long period of time. I look forward to working with them in supporting the workforce. He makes an important point that alludes to the strategy of the company. The company did not present the Government with a viable investable proposition. It has also closed a chemicals plant in France and has confirmed that it is reviewing its European assets. I think we have reached a point where we have to accept that the company has made its decision. However, even though the company could not find a buyer, as I have said, I understand that some expressions of interest have been made and we would be happy to work with anyone who is interested in the plant. We have vehicles such as the British Business Bank and the National Wealth Fund that stand by to support any viable business proposition in our industrial strategy areas.

Oral Answers to Questions

Frank McNally Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas]

I am always happy to work with the Scottish Government and other devolved Governments on how we can improve the business environment. I am sure the right hon. Member will join me in encouraging the Government in Scotland to mirror the changes we have made to business rates relief. Given the sizeable increase in the Scottish budget, it is somewhat surprising that the SNP has not been willing to support the retail sector through an extension of retail hospitality relief.

[Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)]

18. What steps he is taking to help increase levels of international investment in Scotland.

[The Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security (Mr Douglas Alexander)]

The Government are committed to supporting investment in Scotland in line with our growth mission. The Prime Minister recently announced that the National Wealth Fund will provide £200 million of investment in new opportunities in Grangemouth in particular. That announcement came alongside the recently announced £55 million grant for the Port of Cromarty Firth, the two investment zones receiving £80 million over the next five years and our expanded Office for Investment.

[Frank McNally]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that answer. The National Wealth Fund has recently invested £43.5 million in Pulpex Ltd to construct a sustainable packaging facility near Glasgow, which is a welcome move and will support jobs and growth. What further measures are planned to attract similar green industry investments in communities such as my own in North Lanarkshire, which has Scotland’s fastest-growing economy?

[Mr Alexander]

My hon. Friend is a tireless advocate for the communities of Coatbridge and Bellshill. I can assure him that the National Wealth Fund’s strategic partnerships trial will see each local authority within the Glasgow city region, including North Lanarkshire, being invited to submit project proposals, including for projects focused on, I hesitate to say, green jobs in Coatbridge.