Speeches by McDonald.

“That is a really good question. It does concern me a bit. How do we make sure that we get the minerals we need and that we are strong in the areas where we have capability? I do not feel as though we are behind where we need to be. There is huge scope still. I do not want to rush in too quickly either and sign a bad de…”

“Yes, there is. The bilateral relationships with the G7 partners, our closest partners, clearly are incredibly important. The relationships with the US, Canada and Australia are really important. That is partly about the availability of minerals and finance, but it is also about the nature of the trusted relationship. O…”

“Yes, and it is right. We are talking about critical minerals, but there are dozens of these materials here. There is no one-stop shop for all of it. If we are going to get all the materials that we need, there is going to be a complex trading landscape.”

“Any partnership must be a partnership of mutual benefit. It does not matter who it is with. That is the basic way that I used to do business, and that is the basis for any strong relationship, whether it is a commercial relationship or a Government treaty. I am always looking for an opportunity for mutual benefit. I al…”

“I will take it on my summer holidays.”

“It is not that we have not figured it out, but there is not such a project yet. That does not mean there could not be.”

“The question that we would need to ask first, though, is what midstream processing we would want to develop in a country in Africa and why we would want to do it. This goes back to the point that I raised with Noah. We would have to decide first where we would see that sitting and whether it would be here or there.”

“You were surprised that we have a geological survey that is 50 years out of date. When I called in the British Geological Survey to meet with me, I pulled my geological map off my bookshelf at home from 1962 and it was pretty much the same as the data that it has now. In the meantime, foreign Governments have been payi…”

“One example could be copper smelting, potentially. Were you going to come in there, Mike?”

“There is not such a project that we are actively working on. Which is the particular critical mineral? There are some projects that I have looked at on iron ore, for instance, which is on the growth minerals list. In terms of the minerals we have talked about, we have cobalt processing here in the UK; we have nickel pr…”

“One way to look at that is to pick up the critical minerals investment prospectus that we prepared following the strategy. There has been an incredible drumbeat of initiatives that have followed the strategy—I give real credit to Mike and his team for that—including the launch of the website and the skills plan yesterd…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I thank the hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) for securing this debate, which I know is very important for his constituency, just as it is for the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn)—I know that he …”

“I hope the hon. Member will recognise that as I continue my remarks I will address many of the points that he made in his speech, including the point about peatland. From the contributions we have heard today, I would say there is strong agreement in this room on the need both to tackle climate change and to care for o…”

“I am grateful for that intervention, because the hon. Member is right; he mentioned that and I meant to respond to it, but I had forgotten. It is important to note that there is no role for the Government in extending the consultation—that is a matter for the developer, but I am sure that any responsible developer woul…”

“After a lot of hullabaloo about the oil and gas industry, we now get to turn to the areas where we are doubling down—namely, on our vast natural resource in clean energy industries and offshore wind, where we managed to attract £90 billion-worth of private sector investment in 2024, in collaboration with the sector cou…”

“My hon. Friend is right that the allocation round was incredibly successful. Of course, the Conservatives wanted to cancel it, given their opposition to clean industry jobs across the UK. In the north-east, where my hon. Friend is from, we are forecasting an increase of 20,000 jobs. I know that the Smulders yard in her…”

“I appreciate the right hon. Member’s concerns, having spoken to the hydrogen industry myself, and the representation he has made to me and to the Energy Minister on this issue. I can assure him that the hydrogen strategy will be out soon.”

“We now have record public sector investment in the development of this technology, with £86 billion to 2030. As a techno-optimist, I agree with the International Energy Agency that we can now solve 75% of these problems using technology, and I would be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss the matter further.”

“Fusion energy really is the energy of the future. Our fusion strategy, with a fusion prospectus to follow, has a strong focus on inward investment, very much ensuring that Britain is the world-leading place to invest in fusion energy.”

“I do indeed welcome the £200 million design and build contract for ILIOS with, as my hon. Friend mentioned, Kier and firms like Turner & Townsend who can be relied on to deliver. We have allocated £1.3 billion over the spending review period for fusion. Britain has been firmly in the lead for research in this area;…”