Martin Vickers
Main Page: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)Department Debates - View all Martin Vickers's debates with the HM Treasury
(3 days, 8 hours ago)
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Rachel Reeves
This Government have provided £50 million in the spending review today, but we have also, I hope, done much more for Northern Ireland, providing a settlement that is a record since devolution, as well as significant investment in our defence sector. Northern Ireland has a proud history of producing for the UK’s defence needs.
Martin Vickers (Brigg and Immingham) (Con)
Of course I welcome the continuing support for Scunthorpe steelworks, but may I gently remind the Chancellor that that support came seven months after I first raised the issue in the House, and we then had the panic of the Saturday sitting in April?
The Chancellor mentioned support for the Viking carbon capture and storage project, for which, again, I have lobbied for a long time. Can she give me a little more detail about the timeframe?
Rachel Reeves
I thank the hon. Gentleman for welcoming what we did with British Steel in Scunthorpe. I know that he has been a strong voice advocating for British Steel there, unlike some of our late arrivals in another party. As for Viking CCS, I was very pleased to announce that funding today, along with the Acorn investment in Aberdeenshire. The Energy Secretary will set out, in due course, the timing and the money available, but after our investment in CCS in Merseyside and Teesside at the end of last year, we are now in a position to provide a second tranche in Aberdeen, and also in the Humber.