Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dan Aldridge (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)]

3. What steps he is taking to help support innovation in Northern Ireland.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

14. What steps he is taking to help support innovation in Northern Ireland.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Fleur Anderson)]

Happy Lancashire Day to you as well, Mr Speaker. The Secretary of State and I were deeply saddened by the recent passing of former UTV political editor Ken Reid, who was a close follower of Northern Ireland oral questions. Our thoughts are with his family and his many peers across journalism.

I recently attended the launch of Invest NI’s business innovation grant, which received £440,000 of UK Government funding. This will complement the Government’s work to target high-growth sectors in Northern Ireland, including the digital and technologies sector, through our industrial strategy.

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[Fleur Anderson]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point and the connection to Weston-super-Mare. There is a lot of work that we can do to support innovation across the whole country, including through the business innovation grant that I mentioned, which is especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. It offers grants of up to £20,000 to enable those enterprises to come into the market.

[Matt Western]

Beyond its excellent universities, Northern Ireland is home to major innovative businesses such as Wrightbus, Spirit AeroSystems and Harland & Wolff, which specialise respectively in hydrogen vehicles, composite wing and aerostructure manufacture, and modular construction and shipping. Given the economic importance of those businesses, can I ask the UK Government to look again at the future of the whole-site operation at Spirit, as well as at Harland & Wolff, to ensure that those investments and jobs stay in Northern Ireland?

[Fleur Anderson]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising the important aspect of business innovation and for mentioning those businesses, which are important to Northern Ireland’s economy. We are working with the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure the best outcome for Short Brothers and its staff in relation to Spirit. The Department for Business and Trade remains in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers. We want to see an outcome that includes a commitment to develop Short Brothers and its supply chain as part of any acquisition and that provides the best possible opportunity for growth in Northern Ireland. The Department for Business and Trade continues to provide over £13 million of support for Short Brothers’ research and development activity.

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[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to say that the criminal justice system was broken by the last Government, like everything else they touched in the past 14 years. We take the issue extremely seriously. We have made a commitment to halving violence against women and girls. We are taking a number of measures in relation to that, for example piloting domestic abuse protection orders and making it clear that we will introduce a stand-alone offence of spiking. Those are some of the measures that, frankly, we ought to be able to work on across the House, because the issue is of such importance.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

Ukraine faces a hell of a battle on its eastern front with Russia, but on the home front the challenge is just as great. As it faces a harsh winter, it was reported just last week that 80% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is either damaged or destroyed. They desperately need power generators and associated equipment. Will the Prime Minister agree to meet me to discuss the provision of energy aid to this important ally, Ukraine?

[The Prime Minister]

This is a very serious issue. We have provided £370 million of support to the energy sector in Ukraine, which is being targeted by the Russian strikes. I will ensure that my hon. Friend gets a meeting with the relevant Minister. I am pleased that on this issue there is unity across the House in our defence of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression.

Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) (Lab)]

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

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[Brandon Lewis]

My focus is on ensuring that colleagues across Government ensure that we are able to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland in the most effective, efficient, flexible and fluid way. It was good, as I said, that Vice-President Šefčovič met businesses and civic society in Northern Ireland and has committed to continuing to do that so that he can hear directly on the ground the impact that some of this is having, not least the action that the EU took in its movement towards activating article 16 and the impact felt across communities regarding people’s confidence around that. It is right that the EU understands the impact this has on people’s everyday lives in Northern Ireland.

[Matt Western [V]]

Many businesses in Warwick and Leamington and across the country have already opted out of supplying to Northern Ireland due to the complexities. Does the Secretary of State accept that the Government’s denial over the reality of an Irish sea border has actually hampered efforts to prepare British businesses for trade with Northern Ireland and led to the disruption we are seeing today?

[Brandon Lewis]

What I would say to businesses is that I would encourage them to engage with the trader support service that the Government have put in place and which we are funding. It works for businesses, and the businesses that have used it have had great success in continuing to be able to move their products, with advice, smoothly and fluidly. We have worked with businesses continually through the process—as we were in the transition period and since we have left the transition period—to ensure that businesses across the United Kingdom can trade across the United Kingdom, but I recognise there have been issues in how the protocol has been implemented since the end of the transition period, and that is why we will be outlining measures in a written ministerial statement later today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, indeed. That is why we have given another £165 million to extend the troubled families programme this year.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

Q3. In the past 10 years, violent crime has risen 152% across the towns of Warwickshire. In the past two weeks in my constituency, two people have been killed in two separate events and others remain seriously ill or injured. The Government have promised to reinstate 20,000 police officers, but is not the simple truth that it is now our residents, through hikes in council tax of 12% last year and 6% this year, who are picking up the whole bill for the Old Bill, and that the Conservative party is no longer the party of law and order but the party of fear and disorder?

[The Prime Minister]

To be fair to the hon. Gentleman, he is making an important point about violent crime. I share his anger. That is why we are putting 20,000 more police on the streets. That is, above all, why we are now tackling the county lines drugs gangs that are behind so much of the rise in violent crime. We will get that crime down.

Wrightbus (Ballymena)

Matt Western Excerpts

Monday 30th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

I concur with the many points made about what brilliant products Wrightbus makes and what a tragedy we are faced with. I commend the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) for securing this urgent question.

Surely the issue is that Ministers, or BEIS, must have been aware that there was a cash-flow issue within this company a year or so ago. Charitable donations were being made that far exceeded the £1.7 million loss that the company was facing. At what point were Ministers or BEIS aware of that, and what does it mean for the industrial strategy?

[Julian Smith]

The important thing now is to protect jobs and to ensure that we get a successful buyer. There will be time enough to look back on what could have been done differently and what things need to improve.