Speeches by Jones.

“I thank my right hon. Friend the Committee Chair for his question. Of course this is a huge issue. Under the previous Government, industrial energy prices doubled, and as my right hon. Friend says, we have higher prices than many other countries. The 3,000 people who responded to our consultation on the industrial stra…”

“I can give the hon. Gentleman reassurance that we are looking at all options to support the steel industry, which is foundational to our country. He makes the correct points about how important steel is to building our future, whether it be runways, homes or other infra- structure. We are looking at all options, and we…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her championing of her constituency. I am still to visit, and I must do that, because I know she has many exciting places for me to see. Electrifying industry is crucial. The Climate Change Committee has said that that is the route and that 61% of industry will need to be electrified. We need…”

“The North sea fields are a declining basin. We lost 70,000 jobs under the previous Government. Something like only one in 10 of the licences that have been approved over recent years have actually amounted to anything, because of the difficulties of a declining basin. The impact on prices of a very small amount of the …”

“We are obviously keen to do what we can to support the Scottish whisky industry. I have been to see it and understand how important it is. The definitions of energy-intensive industries were developed under the previous Government, and we have no immediate plans to change those, but I will take away the right hon. Gent…”

“The right hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly reasonable point. We have a national consensus that we need to act, and I think the population are with us on that. They understand that we need to make sure we have a planet for our children and our grandchildren and that we need to do everything we can. As was said this week…”

“I think it was probably the Minister for Energy, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), who gave that assurance to the hon. Gentleman, and he is looking at all these issues. We have a very complex energy system. We are trying to make it as cost-effective as we can, and sustainable in the long term, …”

“We are happy to look at a range of options. The whole point of the clean energy plan is that we are using a very diverse range of interventions, some of which are more high-tech and for the future, and some of which are well established. We need that mix.”

“The hon. Lady is right to point out that there is a lot of misinformation in this space, and it is often used by the Conservatives to hide their own failings in government. Of course, the energy price hike that we had was partly because the previous Government had not delivered the security that we needed in our home-g…”

“I think the hon. Gentleman knows that his own party are the experts on deindustrialisation, which we saw significantly across all parts of our manufacturing sector, including at INEOS. I regularly meet INEOS, as do the Secretary of State and other colleagues, and we are looking at what we can do to support the sector. …”

“The hon. Lady is right to raise these challenges, which we are trying to grapple with. We are looking at how we can provide support on energy prices and other aspects for energy-intensive industries. Of course, the energy-intensive industries that qualify for the supercharger are getting significantly increased support…”

“I have met and talked with those from Stellantis many times, and while the closure of the site at Luton was of course very difficult, I know that the reasons were global and complex; it is simply not the case that it was because of energy policy. Stellantis faced a whole range of issues globally, and it had to respond …”

“There was no coherence under the previous Government, and there will be coherence under this Government. We are developing our plan of support for our foundational industries in the industrial strategy. I know that the Opposition are very keen to see what the industrial strategy will contain. They will have to wait a f…”

“I relay my thoughts to the workers in my hon. Friend’s constituency, for whom I know this is a worrying time. I thank my hon. Friend for raising the issue. He is a tireless champion for workers and businesses in his constituency. We have spoken and will continue to speak regularly about these issues and the importance …”

“The hon. Member is right to raise this issue, and the figure for manufacturing in Northern Ireland of 15% or 16% is high. Yesterday, I was with trade unionists from Shorts Brothers—Spirit AeroSystems —to talk about the importance of manufacturing there and the importance of retaining those jobs. They made the point tha…”

“My hon. Friend and several other Welsh colleagues have been talking to me about this. We renegotiated the deal with Port Talbot and the £500 million that goes alongside that. I had a good meeting this week with Blastr, which is looking to build an iron pellet plant at the Port Talbot site if possible, and we are trying…”

“The industrial strategy has identified eight key growth-driving sectors that will be the arrowhead of our economic success, but of course they cannot succeed without the critical supply chains and foundational industries that underpin them. We are looking at all those foundational industries, including the chemicals in…”

“I do not want to underestimate the challenges that the chemical sector faces. Between 2021 and 2024, UK chemicals manufacturing fell in real terms by about a third. We are working to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU. We want to build exports and investment opportunities and reduce barriers…”

“When we look at the eight sectors that we are trying to turbocharge through the industrial strategy, we see that the chemicals sector underpins so many other sectors. We need to make sure that we protect it. As I have just said, chemicals manufacturing has fallen by nearly a third over the past three years; we need to …”

“I agree with my hon. Friend and recognise the challenge. We lost 1,250 jobs in the ceramics sector between 2015 and 2023. It has been a very sad decline, and we want to turn that around. The whole point of an industrial strategy is to have a Government who are proactive in supporting our industries. We will not put ext…”