Justin Madders
Main Page: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)Department Debates - View all Justin Madders's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 day, 13 hours ago)
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Linsey Farnsworth (Amber Valley) (Lab)
Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Bromborough) (Lab)
Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)
Chris Ward
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue again. As I said in the House yesterday, Denby is an iconic British manufacturer, and I know the anxiety that the workforce will feel at the moment. Ceramics is not part of the original four sectors, but I do not want to stop with those four; we want to go further, and I am happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this issue and work with her on it. I should add that we have announced wider measures that will benefit the ceramics sector, including changes to how we calculate social value and the impact on local communities and jobs. However, I get her point, and I will happily meet her to discuss it.
Justin Madders
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the Royal Mail depot in Ellesmere Port, where I went in one of its newly purchased vans from the Stellantis factory just down the road—a perfect example of how we should be supporting British industry. I urge the Minister to look further at this issue, because what he has announced is a start, but it does not go far enough. We need to make sure that every school, hospital, council, utility and big provider of services in this country is looking at how it can buy British and support our great manufacturing sector.
Chris Ward
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I also met Royal Mail in my constituency recently and had a similar conversation, and I understand his point. As I say, I am not pretending that we have gone the full journey with procurement reform. We are taking big steps, but we need to go further, and I am very happy to work with my hon. Friend and others to do so.