Speeches by Bance.

“Representing Tipton, the birthplace of the first industrial revolution, I hugely welcome this industrial strategy and its 1.1 million good jobs. I am particularly pleased to see the Black Country singled out as a centre of clean-energy industries. We recently welcomed £45 million of investment in Eku Energy’s new batte…”

“My hon. Friend is setting out her concerns eloquently. What concerns does she have that the Bill writes a blank cheque for a future Health Secretary to change the nature of the NHS without parliamentary scrutiny?”

“I thank the Chair of the Committee for the opportunity to come in on the topic of this important inquiry, which I was glad to be a part of. One of the best days of the inquiry was the day we welcomed a roundtable of small and medium-sized enterprises in the automotive sector to talk to us about the threat posed to them…”

“One of the first pieces of casework that I picked up was from a young woman pushing her two children through central Wednesbury. We moved to the side and she told me that she was in temporary accommodation, and then she showed me the insect bites up her arm. In my council area, there are 21,000 people on the housing wa…”

“Thank you very much.”

“We believe it is right for the Department for Business and Trade to answer, and we think that is the right week for them.”

“Okay. So perhaps we will do this again on another day.”

“Okay, finding one more name will not be a problem. In fact, I am sure plenty of west midlands colleagues from the Opposition would add their names.”

“Yes, I already have Mike, Ayoub and Wendy. I am so sorry—”

“Thank you very much, Chair. Please accept my apologies for being late—I had the wrong room listed in my diary. Thank you very much for the invitation to tell you why we should celebrate Black Country Day in the week of 14 July. The Black Country is the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Wolverhampto…”

“I am so sorry. I hadn’t realised that we needed four.”

“For so long, Tipton, Wednesbury, Coseley, the Black Country and the whole of the west midlands have been an afterthought. Now our Mayor Richard Parker and the West Midlands combined authority will have £2.5 billion for transport, to unlock desperately needed good jobs and growth across our cities and towns. I hope that…”

“Mr Kenward, how many jobs are at risk, and where are those jobs?”

“What is the growth potential for this industry, absent this shock?”

“Murray, you mentioned the quota. One of the questions that I had about the deal was whether the 100,000 quota was too restrictive for British manufacturers. Would you have preferred it to be higher? Does it give you adequate headroom? In the long term, will it need to be higher? What is your sense?”

“Perhaps the hon. Member has not had a chance to see the piece of work produced by a former shadow Chancellor that sets out the relative recovery rates of different world economies in the developed world since the pandemic. It shows that the United Kingdom is right at the bottom of the pile thanks to the mess left to us…”

“Skills England is a new body set up within the Department for Education. There has been some question about whether it will have the convening power, the ability to direct provision in the way that is needed and the sense, across Government, of being able to push the agenda that is going to be set out in the industrial…”

“Again, my question is to the Business Secretary. We saw the chair of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council at a point when she was very newly appointed. She was clear that it was not to be her job to protect good jobs in existing industries that were experiencing crisis but could continue to thrive. We all know that…”

“I have one final question. You spoke a little in a previous answer about the skills bootcamps. One of the great unanswered questions, given that the majority of the 2030 or 2040 workforce is already in work, is how we intervene with that workforce. The job they may be doing now may not be the job we are going to need t…”

“Do you have any comments on the national security exemption and the further use of that to support the UK steel industry?”