Speeches by McDonald.

“I share the hon. Member’s affection for Dounreay—I have family based in Reay and Thurso and have enjoyed many a holiday on the north coast of Scotland. As he said, it has a talented and experienced nuclear workforce, and I very much hope that they will play a part in Britain’s nuclear future.”

“My hon. Friend is right to point out the importance of finishing companies. I know that some spinning and weaving businesses are included in the supercharger, but finishing is often not, even though it is done in the same factory. Clearly, whether they are waterproofing sou’westers or fireproofing mattresses, these bus…”

“We are supporting private sector investment in Buckingham and Bletchley by working with partners across the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor to find new opportunities for businesses. I acknowledge the work of my hon. Friend in launching the Bletchley investment taskforce, which is bringing together private capital and …”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on his work with the Bletchley investment taskforce. I know that businesses in his constituency, such as Envisics, Carnot and Pulsar, have benefited from the work he has done, and I would be very happy to ensure that he gets a meeting with the relevant Minister.”

“I thank my hon. Friend, who is an advocate and champion of businesses in Lichfield. As I am sure he is aware, we are making sure that the UK is the best place in the world to invest by backing priority sectors through our industrial strategy. The advanced manufacturing sector plan will strengthen UK supply chains in se…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his work in establishing the all-party parliamentary group on quantum technologies. He is right to identify these technologies as very important for the future, and to put his finger on the particular problem that we have in the UK: while we are brilliant at innovating and investing in resear…”

“The Government recognise the importance of the defence industrial plan, which will be brought to the House as soon as it can be. On private sector investment, £10 billion of investment came in from the regional summits, and £79 billion of investment was identified in the last industrial strategy quarterly report. Inves…”

“The Minister responsible for the Post Office and the Royal Mail, my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Blair McDougall), is sitting beside me. Just yesterday, he spent 90 minutes in the House answering questions from Members who have had problems with the service across the whole of the country; I have seen …”

“My hon. Friend is right: Cornwall has loads of critical minerals. They will be beneficial in driving not only the UK economy but great businesses and export opportunities. As we have said before, we want companies to scale and grow in the UK, to be headquartered and listed in the UK, and to provide great jobs in the UK…”

“The Government are incredibly concerned about the gradual erosion of UK domestic steel production compared with imports. I ask my hon. Friend to wait a very short time until the steel strategy is published, and after that he might like a further discussion with me.”

“I thank everyone who has participated in today’s debate. I particularly thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne) for opening the debate, as well as for his work as Chair of the Business and Trade Committee, and the members of that Committee who have spoken in today…”

“Look out for our plan for high streets, which will be published shortly. My hon. Friends the Members for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) and for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) mentioned the gas-intensive nature of ceramics businesses. I am aware of that, and am looking at it very carefully. I hope that I have …”

“It is exactly that disparity in international energy prices for industry, which the previous Conservative Government left us with, that we are addressing through our clean power 2030 mission. However, we recognise that as clean power is coming online, industry will need further support. Both Ametek and SSS Gears are ex…”

“The hon. Gentleman is quite right to point out the impact of energy costs on small businesses. As we have seen, that has been largely driven over many years by the linkage between energy costs and gas prices, which is something that this Government are determined to deal with as we pile on renewable energy as part of o…”

“We recognise that high energy costs remain a significant pressure on UK businesses. We are acting now through the British industry supercharger and the new British industrial competitiveness scheme to reduce electricity costs for energy-intensive sectors, while delivering our clean power 2030 mission to cut bills for g…”

“Of course, it is central to the Government’s policy that businesses are incentivised to invest in renewable energy and electrification where that is possible, so that they can access the lower-cost electrical energy that is coming on stream as part of our 2030 clean power mission. The hon. Lady mentioned that the busin…”

“My hon. Friend does a grand job of championing the critical minerals industry in Cornwall and the potential for floating offshore wind in her constituency. She highlights a great opportunity, where investment in energy and industry side by side can reduce the cost of capital for both parts of the supply chain and so cr…”

“I am very concerned about gas-intensive industries, and the Government’s policy is intended to ensure that they are given the support to decarbonise by electrifying, where that is possible, whether that is through confidence in long-term energy prices owing to the delivery of our clean power mission or through support …”

“I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for engaging with me on this topic in advance of the recent changes to the emissions trading scheme to include maritime emissions. It is incredibly important that domestic maritime emissions are included, so as to incentivise the investment required to decarbonise. I am aware o…”

“In fact, the Government are taking an approach across the whole United Kingdom to deliver the energy infrastructure and energy generation capacity to guarantee low-cost, home-grown, secure energy for the future, ensuring that the jobs and benefits from that are seen across the country. I would have thought that the hon…”