Ministers are set to announce moves to include more British steel in
defence projects amid an industry crisis, Business Secretary Sajid Javid
has hinted.
Mr Javid said Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunne could make an
announcement “in the coming days” on Ministry of Defence (MoD) acquisition
of British steel.
And potential Government “co-investment” with a commercial buyer in Tata
Steel’s largest plant in Port Talbot could involve taking on some of the
business’s debts, Mr Javid added.
SNIP
Conservative David Davies (Monmouth) said: “I think the Government,
frankly, is not doing enough.”
He also claimed carbon dioxide emissions are not causing big rises in
global temperatures, as he insisted more needs to be done to protect the
country’s heavy industries.
Mr Davies, opening his remarks, said there had been a lack of consistency
from all parties, adding: “We need to ask ourselves a fundamental question,
which is whether or not we want to have heavy manufacturing industries in
this country.
“Of course people say that the answer is yes, I think the answer is yes,
but if that is the case then one has to ask the question why is it that
over the last few years governments of all parties – this Government, the
previous coalition government and certainly the previous Labour government
– have all enacted policies that have made it much harder for heavy
industry to continue.
“They have swallowed lock, stock and barrel the idea that carbon dioxide is
a pollutant, which is causing runaway global warming, and they’ve enacted a
series of policies that have made it very expensive for any industry that
emits CO2 and made it very expensive for heavy manufacturers to buy in
energy.”
Mr Davies said high energy costs are affecting other heavy manufacturing
industries including glass, chemicals and cement.
He went on: “If honourable ladies and gentlemen truly believe these
industries are polluting the atmosphere and causing great increases in
temperature that we haven’t actually seen any evidence of for 17 years,
then they’re doing exactly the right thing.
“I happen to think all of them, including this Government, are doing the
wrong thing.
“I think it’s high time we stopped trying to tax our manufacturing
industries, stop taking tax away from companies that could be profitable
and handing them over to expensive wind farms generating electricity at two
or three times the cost of market rates, particularly when those same wind
farm companies are not even willing to buy steel from this country and
import the whole thing.”
Mr Davies added: “I don’t have any problem at all with CO2 being emitted.
“I want to see a viable heavy manufacturing industry in this country, I
want to see lots of jobs, low taxation and I’m perfectly relaxed about CO2
emissions.”
SNIP
3 Comments