UK Steel Production: Greensill Capital Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Jacob Young
Main Page: Jacob Young (Conservative - Redcar)Department Debates - View all Jacob Young's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Kwasi Kwarteng
The hon. Gentleman makes a very fair point, and he will be pleased to learn that I have spoken to representatives of the Scottish Government. We have mutual and very strong interests in the ongoing future of the businesses under the GFG umbrella, and he will know that my door is always open to conversations with him and his counterparts in the Scottish Government to see a way through. As far as specifics of Government intervention, I have said repeatedly that it is not appropriate now, given where we are, for me to disclose anything of that kind, but of course this is an ongoing situation that we are monitoring extremely closely.
Jacob Young (Redcar) (Con)
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement, for his recent visit to Teesside and for all he is doing to support the industry at this difficult time. Under the last Labour Government, steel production in this country fell by almost 50%, so we should take no lectures from Labour on this. In Redcar, we lost our blast furnace in 2015 with the closure of SSI, but the only reason we have any steel manufacturing left at all is that the Government stepped in and saved British Steel at Lackenby and Skinningrove. Will the Secretary of State confirm that he will address key industry concerns such as energy pricing, that he will champion the UK steel charter and that it is our policy to increase domestic steel production, and will he work with me and Ben Houchen on a new electric arc furnace for Redcar?
Kwasi Kwarteng
I commend my hon. Friend, who, only in his brief time as a Member of Parliament, has made a real impact on these discussions and in representing Redcar. I remember a Redcar that was represented by a Liberal Democrat precisely because of the closure of the SSI plant, and I am delighted to see that it is now represented by an excellent Conservative MP.