Speeches by Madders.

“I mean manufacturing. In terms of Government and public sector purchases of vehicles, how many are UK manufactured? How many are electric? Is there a drive within the public sector to support the industry through that?”

“I will ask the questions of the Leader of the Opposition, as that is how interventions work. Can I also suggest that, if she wants Government Back Benchers to support her motion, she should not be insulting us and calling us sheep? The critical question to which a lot of Back Benchers want to know the answer is: why no…”

“I want to follow up on the review. It is absolutely crystal clear from what you have said that this is potentially existential for the industry. What possible reason could there be for the Government wanting to wait until next year for the outcome of the review?”

“It is absolutely the case that the Government are doing a number of things to support the sector, but getting a review of this mandate brought forward is critical. Part of the problem the industry has is demand, is it not? There have been some initiatives to spike demand. What are the Government doing themselves in ter…”

“I start by thanking the Minister for her hard work and dedication in trying to get this Bill right. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that the voices of the campaigners have been heard and are reflected in the final provisions, and I know that she will continue to do so when the Bill returns in the next parliamentary…”

“10. What steps he is taking to reform public procurement.”

“Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting the Royal Mail depot in Ellesmere Port, where I went in one of its newly purchased vans from the Stellantis factory just down the road—a perfect example of how we should be supporting British industry. I urge the Minister to look further at this issue, because what he has annou…”

“When the Central England Co-operative announced that it was purchasing the Marquis pub in Great Sutton and the Saffron restaurant in Ellesmere Port, we were delighted that those old buildings were going to be brought back into use as convenience stores. However, five years on since those announcements, I am afraid that…”

“It certainly does, yes.”

“It is in my constituency.”

“You have touched on this already in terms of the reasons why certain supply chains might be more vulnerable than others, particularly because of the concentration of resources. I wonder whether you could say a little more about what the range of factors might be and how you evaluate that at each stage of the supply cha…”

“Can I push a little bit more on this suggestion that we do not need to worry about the source of it because there is enough to go around? You have mentioned already that it can be subject to monopolies and political influence. Is it not also the case that it is about how much physically you can get out at any one time,…”

“We have talked a lot about risks, so I will be brief. We have seen, with what has happened in the middle east recently, that a military conflict can very quickly be leveraged to create economic challenges. If there was a decision taken at some point in the future for some military dispute to use China’s economic levera…”

“Shaun and Julian, do you have any other perspectives on the level of guidance and support that you get from the UK Government?”

“Would your members know where to go to get advice on those risks?”

“In terms of that caution, where businesses do not feel emboldened to take that sort of risk, is that a very China-specific thing or does it apply to other countries?”

“I will come back to you, James. We had some discussion on the first panel about how helpful or otherwise the Government were in terms of giving you support and guidance about how to deal with China. You have talked a bit about what some of your members are doing. Do you feel that they are de-risking in response to Gove…”

“Your survey indicated that about 24% of your members were not exporting at the moment but were considering it, and about 30% were not doing it and were not considering it. That is a majority of your members that are not exporting to China. Do you have any sense as to what the reasons are for what seems to me a pretty h…”

“James, I have some questions to you to start with. In terms of your members, how important is the Chinese export market? We know that about £18 billion of goods go over every year. Give us a sense as to how big a piece of the pie that is?”

“Could you give us a sense as to what some of those low-risk, high-value opportunities might be?”