Newport Wafer Fab
Debate between Grant Shapps and Navendu Mishra(2 years ago)
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Grant Shapps
I thank my hon. Friend, who was key in persuading the Government to take forward the national security and investment legislation. That has been important in this case—definitive, in fact. Although he may have been right at the time, I understand we did not have any powers to block the sale at that time. I therefore congratulate him on his foresight. I do not think we could have done anything other than wait for the powers afforded to us in January and the action that I took very recently.
With regard to the next steps, I am afraid that I am bound by the National Security and Investment Act not to go into terrific detail, other than to refer to what I have already published and made available to the House with regard to the final order. However, there is in essence a process by which the company will report back to me on its plans and, over a period—it may well take several months—the sale of the company will take place.
Navendu Mishra (Stockport) (Lab)
Nexperia is a large employer in the local authority of Stockport, so I welcome the urgent question secured by my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West (Ruth Jones). From the nuclear industry to Huawei, the Government seem to be lurching from crisis to crisis. The reality is that they do not have an industrial strategy. Will the Secretary of State come back to the House urgently with an industrial strategy that will deliver growth and certainty for the people who work in the sector? This is causing significant problems for people employed by the business in Stockport and Newport.
Grant Shapps
We do not agree with the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation. Private businesses run these operations and 100 different companies have invested in semiconductor devices. Five thousand UK companies, 90% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises, are designing and making electronic components, devices, systems and products. I know that there are still some Opposition Members who think that the Government should take the lot over, but that is not a sensible way to go about doing business. I have already explained how the Government not only invested in what happened in south Wales but are investing more, based on the autumn statement that we heard from the Dispatch Box on Thursday. Be assured that more money is coming, but, in the end, it is for the private sector to decide how to invest it.