Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

The £2.8 billion referred to earlier is designed to do exactly that—for example, investment in a megafactory or a gigafactory to produce those batteries, which is one of the largest components of bringing down the price so that cars are affordable. It is also worth considering that we already have more rapid chargers per 100 miles driven than any country in the EU.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will know that during the covid pandemic, the number of people using bus transportation has fallen dramatically, partly because of people’s fears, but partly because of the social distancing rules. Does that not make it astonishing that, in the middle of its industrial dispute with Unite the Union, Go North West is now packing its buses to shove passengers in? What will be done to increase bus transportation post covid? Will the Secretary of State have a word with the management of Go North West to insist that it does not put passengers’ lives at risk?

[Grant Shapps]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. I am not familiar with that situation, so I am grateful to him for bringing it to my attention, and I assure him that I will look into it this afternoon. On the wider point, he is right to say that right now people are being told to stay at home and avoid travelling. We must do a lot of work to encourage people back on to our public transport—it is important we do that—and as I have hinted to others, he will not have to wait long for a national bus strategy, which I hope will answer all his questions.