Nick Thomas-Symonds
Main Page: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)(9 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
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Anna Soubry
What I can confirm is a £50 million package that will mean that, in effect, there is an investment of £44,000 in each and every worker to help them find alternative work.
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) (Lab)
It was the Tory Lord Heseltine, as he now is, who said that to help British business he would
“intervene before breakfast, before lunch, before tea and before dinner. And…get up next morning to start again.”
Might the Minister not regret the fact that she did not save steelmaking on Teesside, which would have been far better for our national economy than the package that she has announced today?
Anna Soubry
Obviously, the hon. Gentleman will not have access to all the television interviews that I did at the time. If I had a magic wand, the simple answer would be, “Absolutely, yes”, but the harsh reality is that we have slab falling by half its price, overproduction, under-consumption and a steel plant losing half a billion in five years. That is the harsh reality, and it would not be fair on his constituents if we were to try to bail out Britain’s steel industry, which would probably cost £1 billion a year.