Critical minerals are not just commodities. They are instruments of power.
Today the Business and Trade Sub-Committee opens a new inquiry into the supply chains that underpin AI, defence, and clean energy.
15:45 today.
Watch here: parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...
This is a brilliant commitment. 2500 paid five day work experience placements with McDonalds across the country for young people.
Our young people can: they just need the chance to show it.
Child deaths in inadequate temporary accommodation are an emergency.
Proud of what we are doing determined to get it done and get kids out of the worst TA and turn it back to what it was supposed to be - temporary, til families get their home
Yes - though automation adoption is slower than you would expect
Today is a business and trade day for me. Met the TBI on industrial strategy earlier, select committee on China trade now, industry minister re industrial energy prices later, APPG on freight and logistics later still.
Stephen is as so often right.
How many jobs are there in the Black Country that are daytime, guaranteed hours, not physically strenuous and require level 3 or lower - and how do we get those employers to pick someone off UC rather than a job changer?
That is exactly how I felt when I saw Matthew’s post. What a loss.
I am so very sorry to hear this. Giles - @nearlylegal.co.uk - was always so generous with his expertise to those of us campaigning for more and better homes. I hope his family are so proud even in their loss.
Sat in on a few of the UQs/statements on it. I know, but it cannot be beyond the wit of man to both make something in the UK (and in an economically distressed area not eg putting a gigafactory in sodding Somerset), that we need viz SDR, and to procure and specify and control properly…
That isn’t our experience. We’re not geographically sensible for lots of clean energy, and even the supply chain doesn’t reliably work - eg Net Zero Teeside bought their steelwork from China. Whereas an eg munitions factory could just be ours
For sure. But this has the particular benefit that much of it is government funded and commissioned - which means governments can set place. I would give my right arm for a bigger slice of manufacturing in the Black Country
NEW: Richard Tice failed to pay almost £100,000 in corporation tax, benefiting his investment company which made large donations to Reform UK.
First time Reform's deputy leader's tax affairs can be directly linked to finances of Nigel Farage's party.
In case you’re confused - the £100k of tax Richard Tice failed to pay here is totally different to the
- £92k of tax not properly withheld on dividends
- the £600k side-stepped via highly aggressive tax avoidance
Industrial scale grifting revealed by @danneidle.bsky.social and Gabriel Pogrund
Matt - thank you for writing this. I really felt as though I knew you both reading what you had written. Palace is a special club - for me and my family too. Sending my condolences to you and your family on the loss of your dad. I can't imagine how proud he must have been of you.
Nah. People love their cars and hate potholes
If I were posting about trams you’d all love it
Energy costs in manufacturing are interesting and growth relevant too!
Nerdy thread…
Yes, I am proud and emotional. And today I will take some time to call all the firms I have visited and worked with in the last two years to tell them their advocacy for a Britain that makes things is backed by this Labour government - and help is coming
Some constituencies have natural beauty or national monuments
I have liquid aluminium heated to 600 degrees, poured in a gleaming waterfall, and cast into the surround for the engine of (household name) electric car exported to the world
If your first thought is what about domestic bills: these are good jobs in parts of the country without enough of that.
Manufacturing is 40% of our exports. It’s at least 8% of GDP.
This is about growth and prosperity - and it’s about pride and excellence
Reform will promise the earth to manufacturing communities like mine. One thing they are good at manufacturing is magic wands.
Mass consumer goods manufacturing is not coming back. The future is using our R&D advantage to invent and then create and commercialise incredible products
And without looking I know the Tory line: “what about hospitality?!”
This is a manufacturing scheme - to help us make more in Britain, to keep good jobs here, and to protect the supply chain for world leading industry and for national security
There used to be Tory industrialists…
Less energy intensive manufacturing won’t get this help either. Make UK argued for a scheme to help all 130,000 manufacturers at a several billion pound cost- obviously choices had to be made
It’s not an announcement that helps industries that rely on gas (usually cos they need consistent very high temperatures)
We desperately need more help for ceramics, glass, chemicals - there is help for some through the Supercharger scheme but not wide enough
I am delighted. Bigger than promised, sooner than promised. So many of us have raised this so often
Have all the issues been fixed? When the detail is out I’ll look carefully to check the downstream steel and aluminium processing and fabrication industries are included
For sure, in the medium term there is solar and nuclear and wind - but the grid isn’t there yet, and by the time we could get prices down to a manageable level we’d have no industry left
Hence the decision to offload policy costs and cut bills by 25% now
Without action on energy costs, UK SMEs would lose out to foreign competitors - and multinationals would look at their UK sites and decide to move production abroad
That is real and it’s happening now - and we had to stop it now hence immediate action on energy costs in manufacturing
In the foundries and factories of the Black Country, managers show me energy bills double or tripled since 2020
Energy costs are existential - without action we’d lose what we are great at -not mass market consumer goods but high grade high skill precision advanced manufacturing
This matters. Nissan say their car plant in Sunderland is the most expensive in the world for energy. It’s not unusual to see energy costs for plants a third more than France, double or more that of the US - it’s the biggest disincentive to manufacture in the UK rather than elsewhere
NEW: The British Industrial
Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) launched today will cut energy costs by 25% for 10,000 manufacturing firms (up from 7000) - and it’s backdated to 2026 rather than starting in 2027
