Speciality Steel UK: Insolvency

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

UK manufacturing suffered under the previous Government, who had no strategy, did not really believe in it and allowed thousands of jobs to be lost across a range of different industries. This Government are taking a fundamentally different approach: we have an industrial strategy under which we intervene directly to grow the industries of the future, including foundational industries such as steel, which are so important to us for many different reasons. We are also introducing energy price reductions that, for companies such as Liberty that use high levels of energy, will mean significant reductions in their costs by next year. We are introducing an additional energy reduction for a wider group of up to 7,000 companies, which by 2027 will also receive a significant reduction. Again, that is something that the previous Government never did.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her statement and for her commitment. On anything that I have ever had to speak to the hon. Lady about, she has always been willing to try to achieve something to give security for jobs, and I thank her for that personally. The fact that some 1,450 jobs are on the line is devastating not only for all the families concerned, but for the subsidiary supply companies and those that rely on high-quality steel for their manufacturing. In Northern Ireland, for example, that includes Harland & Wolff, aerospace and the construction sector. For the future of steel, the sector must continue to win future contracts for our industry. How can she provide certainty in these uncertain days?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words. He is right to point to the supply chain and the need for us to support not just the key industries, but the whole network of small and medium-sized companies across the whole UK, not just in Northern Ireland. I was in Belfast a couple of weeks ago, and I was delighted to see at Harland & Wolff the building under way of the three ships that are part of the MOD contract with Navantia. I was also pleased to go to Spirit, given our good conversations with Boeing about the future of that site and what it could look like. I also met lots of other parts of the industry. Advanced manufacturing in Northern Ireland is showing the way in lots of new technologies that we need to support. I will continue to support them.