Plant Oxford Site

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

I concur with my noble friend’s point. BMW often describes Oxford as the home of the Mini and sees that investment as crucial. I hope that my noble friend and other noble Lords will welcome our new announcement for the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and the high-potential sectors within that, in which the automotive sector could well play a part. My noble friend Lord Vallance will be the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor champion; it will ensure new investment into the sector and, I hope, provide further encouragement for BMW to carry on investing in the Mini lines.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, in light of the lighter restrictions which many of our allies have placed on the import of cars made in China, and given that the labour used to manufacture those vehicles is often connected to slave labour in Xinjiang and there can therefore never be fair or proper competition in any sense of the word, what account are the Government taking of the threat posed by the flooding of our markets by the unrestricted import of large numbers of electric cars from China?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, we are very aware of the situation with regard to China, in particular Chinese electric vehicles. China’s role in the global automotive industry is growing, which presents both risks and opportunities for us. We will not hesitate to act where that creates issues or problems for the UK, but we are very mindful of the opportunities that this presents as well. Our automotive industry in the UK is very different from those of other European countries because it is export oriented; we export 80% of our cars abroad, unlike, for example, the EU and the US, where production is sold domestically. Nevertheless, we are aware of the issues that the noble Lord raises and will continue to act in our interests.