Post-industrial Towns

Luke Myer Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jo White]

I very much agree and will refer to that later in my contribution. For too long people have moved away to university and never come back. We need good apprenticeships aligned to our local FE colleges. They have to be a part of the engine of the future and our industrial strategy has to focus on that as well as where businesses go in the future.

[Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

My community in East Cleveland was once home to the ironstone mines and the steelworks that helped build this great country, but I often speak to steelworkers who say that when they left school they had a guaranteed job for life and this is not the case any more. Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a role for our combined authorities to play not just in creating jobs but in having a skills strategy that guarantees decent, well-paid jobs for our young people years into the future?

[Jo White]

I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution. He very much reflects my priorities, and we must have a skills strategy that aligns with an industrial strategy so that our young people know clearly where their futures are.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jo White]

Again, I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I am fortunate, as I have a new mayor, the Mayor of the East Midlands. I can already see the benefits of having a mayoral combined authority. That partnership with local government, the mayor and me is critical for investment. I had a conversation with her on Saturday and talked about my hon. Friend’s area, because areas like his will get left behind if they do not have the opportunity to have a combined authority and mayor. It makes an incredible difference, and my ask of Government is to move fast and get that sorted. [Interruption.] I need to wind up, I am being told, so I will go to the end of my speech to give the Minister the opportunity to wind up.

[Luke Myer]

As the debate is winding up, I just want to give the good people at Hansard an opportunity to record the fact that not a single Conservative or Reform MP was here in the Chamber to listen to this important debate.

[Mr Speaker]

Come on. This debate is far too important to start scoring party political points at this stage.