Speeches by Jones.

“I thank my hon. Friend for that conversation and all her work with the steel industry in her constituency. The steel strategy that we are putting together, which will be published in the spring with £2.5 billion to invest, will consider how to stimulate demand, use research and development and get the most out of scrap…”

“I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are not sitting on our hands, and there is a good reason why it would not be right to comment in this place on the internal negotiations between this Government and the United States. We will rightly keep a cool head in those conversations and ensure that we are ultimately doin…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for the manner in which he has represented his constituents today and engaged with us previously. On the point of clarity, I confirm that we would rather the blast furnaces remained open. He knows that if they closed before a supply of steel were secured, that would be significant in terms of…”

“First, my thoughts are, and the thoughts of all hon. Members will be, with British Steel workers and their families, following the company’s announcement of plans to close the blast furnaces and other steelmaking assets at Scunthorpe, and its commercial decision to consult on redundancies. This is not what we wanted, a…”

“I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the trade unions—GMB, Community and Unite—which we have been working with closely. We have been discussing their plan. As I say, our preference is that British Steel accepts the deal—the incredibly generous offer of public funding—we have given it. We hope we can find a way for…”

“Through our plan for steel and the £2.5 billion that we are investing in the steel industry, we are aiming to do exactly that, to keep the industry going. I invite the hon. Gentleman to go and see the other sites around the country where we have electric arc furnaces in operation, because they are not that different fr…”

“I know that my hon. Friend is working hard on behalf of his constituents; I appreciated being able to talk to him in the run-up to this. I can reassure him that this Government want to deliver a vibrant steel industry in the UK. We are very well aware of the importance of British Steel and of the Scunthorpe site and as…”

“I am sure the hon. Gentleman knows that this is a private company that will make decisions of its own. We are operating within that environment. We have put an offer on the table that is about the development and redevelopment of Scunthorpe, the creation of an electric arc furnace and the transition for that. The offer…”

“The EU is in a very different position. We do not yet know at all what is going to happen next week. We will respond and make sure we do what is right for our industries because that is our job. At the moment, we are both reviewing the measures that are already in place and prioritising the discussions with the America…”

“At this stage, the TRA is doing its piece of work, and we are working with the Americans to see whether we can come to a conclusion.”

“I do not know whether we will bring in exactly the same things at exactly the same time. Our priority is the conversations that we are having with the American Government. We want to make sure we are as successful as we can be in those conversations. The TRA has announced that it is doing a review, which is right, and …”

“They have announced today that they are doing the piece of work. The EU has announced a suite of different things, some of which are similar in terms of timeframe to us. There are two questions. There is the immediate question about whether the safeguards that are in place now are adequate. That is what the TRA is now …”

“It has announced today, which is helpful, that it is going to widen its review of the UK’s steel defences. That is directly in response to the request that was put in by UK Steel, which they talked about when they met you last week. We are pleased about that. It is basically expanding the scope of steel safeguard measu…”

“As you say, next Wednesday is 2 April. That is world tariff day, as the US are calling it. Of course, that comes after the tariffs that have already come in on steel and aluminium that you talked about to colleagues last week. These will be the reciprocal tariffs that have been talked about. Because of the strength of …”

“Yes, all these things are challenging. If you talk to the proliferation of small companies that are working in the space space, access to finance is another one. That is a problem across a lot of different sectors with smaller businesses, but accessing investment is a particular problem in the space sector. We need to …”

“As I say, the structure of it is not for me to comment on. Through developing the industrial strategy, I see that we need to do better at working together across Departments in all kinds of different ways. If you look at specific industries such as space, there is a bit in the Department for Transport; there is a bit i…”

“We were talking earlier about industrial strategy and how we are trying to make sure we are working across Government. The problem that we need to solve is making sure different Departments are working well together. Where it sits is one question to which I do not have an answer because it is not my job to do that. The…”

“Yes, but we are talking to them.”

“All shift is an opportunity to increase production in the UK. Trying to get market share in green steel and become a leader on that front is one example. As an institution, the EU is looking very closely at steel. It has produced a bit of a strategy, which in many ways mirrors a lot of the conversations and thoughts we…”

“Do you mean in terms of what Europe might be doing?”