Graham Stuart (Conservative)

The automotive industry is a vital part of the UK economy, and it is integral to delivering on levelling up, net zero and advancing global Britain. We will continue to take steps to champion the UK as the best location in the world for automotive manufacturing as we transition to electric and zero-emission vehicles.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

The hon. Gentleman is right about one thing: there is a tremendous opportunity. That is why we have the automotive transformation fund. That is why we did thorough due diligence on Britishvolt. It is because we set conditions around milestones that it had to meet that not a penny of that fund was dispensed to Britishvolt. However, I make no apology for supporting companies that are going to be part of that opportunity. The idea from the Labour party is that, if it were in power, it would build these factories. That is not how the economy works. That is why, in 2010, after 13 years of Labour Government, we saw youth unemployment up by more than 40%. That is the truth. We saw communities such as Blyth left behind and ignored. We saw an economic strategy that did not work for our young people and did not contribute to net zero in the way that it should. On the underpinning energy system, a bit more than 7% of our electricity came from renewables when Labour left power. Now it is more than 40%.

The net zero strategy announced £350 million for the automotive transformation fund. That was in addition to the £500 million announced as part of the 10-point plan. That is why we are seeing investment. That is why we have nearly full employment. That is why we have factories and manufacturing going ahead in a way that would never happen under Labour.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I thank my right hon. Friend, whose economic insights I always value and appreciate. However, we are committed to electric and zero-emission vehicles and we will not stimulate investment in those sectors by removing the mandates that drive consumer choice and have led to such a significant change in our road transport emissions. We are going to have even more ambitious steps.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I share the hon. Gentleman’s enthusiasm for the opportunities that come from net zero. That is why we are moving so hard on nuclear, which of course anybody who is not a prisoner of some ideological opposition and is genuinely committed to green energy would support. We are supporting that across the piece. I do not think that Conservative Members will take lessons on industrial intervention from Scottish nationalists after their shipbuilding enterprises in the north.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I thank my right hon. Friend, before whom I appeared this morning on the subject of delivering nuclear power, for which I noticed there were no Scottish nationalists present. He is absolutely right about the need to have those batteries in place and, as I have said, that is what the automotive transformation fund, among others, is designed to do. The automotive sector generated £58.7 billion in turnover and £14 billion in GVA in 2021 and we are committed to ensuring that it goes forward successfully. I look forward to working with the former Secretary of State to make sure that we do have those factories in this country, which is absolutely vital to make sure that, on British roads, there are zero-emission vehicles that are produced here and that jobs are created here as a result of that.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

The hon. Gentleman, who is himself a distinguished Chair of a Select Committee, is right to highlight some of the pressures from IRA in the United States and the response from the EU. We have to ensure that we have policies in place and I look forward— [ Interruption. ] In the coming weeks, we will be coming forward with our green finance strategy and our response to the Climate Change Committee. In hydrogen, carbon capture and so many of these industries, the UK is world leading. We are determined to ensure through a raft of different policies—I know his Select Committee will be scrutinising them—that we retain that position, which has transformed the UK from where it was in 2010, when there was higher unemployment and so little progress on net zero.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. The Government have prioritised securing investment in battery cell gigafactories. As Members have been right to say, this is key in anchoring the mass manufacture of electric vehicles in the UK, safeguarding jobs and driving emissions to net zero by 2050. On 1 July 2021, Envision AESC announced investment in its gigafactory in Sunderland. On 18 July last year, Johnson Matthey confirmed investment in the construction of a factory for PEM—proton exchange membrane—fuel cell components for use in hydrogen vehicles to be located at its existing site in Royston, Hertfordshire. We have to keep on going with that and, as she says, build that investment and make sure we have the policies in place to bring that investment here.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend and I would be delighted to have that meeting. As I say, as part of the green finance strategy, about which I had a cross-Whitehall ministerial meeting just this morning, we are determined to make sure that this is the most investable place on earth for the net zero transition and the best place for companies to build businesses, including gigafactories.

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Sammy Wilson (DUP)

than a robust economic case. Is the Minister concerned that the company mentioned ballooning energy costs? BMW is moving its production of the Mini to China because it can get cheap energy there. How many more jobs will be sacrificed on the altar of a high energy cost net zero policy?

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question and his consistency, but if he looks at energy costs at the moment he will find that it is the sky-high prices of fossil fuels that are causing the problems. There is consensus across the House, of which he is not quite a part, that renewables and the Government policy of building them at scale are bringing the lowest cost energy to the grid. The contract for difference companies are paying hundreds of millions of pounds into subsidised bills because under the CfD mechanism, while they were guaranteed a figure with high prices that are driven by gas prices, they are now contributing and lowering bills. It is precisely more renewables and more green energy that we need in order to have a more affordable grid for our industry and our residents.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

In the net zero strategy it was announced that there would be £350 million of funding for the automotive transformation fund, in addition to the £500 million announced as part of the 10-point plan.

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Holly Mumby-Croft (Scunthorpe) (Con)

Clearly, this is unwelcome and sad news. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Government must keep a constant eye on ensuring that the UK remains an attractive place for new investors and, alongside that, ensure that we retain the ability to make other materials that are essential for net zero, such as steel?

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

We are engaging with the Department for International Trade—as I hope the presence in the Chamber of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade Policy indicates—to make that case to investors. We have the green finance strategy, as I say, and our response to the Climate Change Committee and to the judicial review are coming up in the coming weeks, sending a real signal of the investability of the UK in the green sectors. I know that the hon. Gentleman, perhaps unlike the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson), is an enthusiast because he can see the economic opportunity; if the hon. Gentleman can use the few feet between the two of them to educate his right hon. Friend, he will be an even greater politician than I thought he was already.

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Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)

Last month, I spoke at the launch in London of the Indo-Pacific Net-zero Battery-materials Consortium, which brings together British and far eastern businesses, working with the support of the British and Indonesian Governments, to secure materials essential for battery production, such as nickel. Some politicians here today have talked about sprouting battery factories in the UK as if they were mushrooms, but the reality is that they depend on sources of materials. That is precisely what our Government are helping to facilitate.

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Graham Stuart (Conservative)

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his—as ever—courteous question. He is right about the importance of Northern Ireland playing its part in the automotive industry as we move to zero-emissions vehicles. I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss this issue and others later this week when I visit Strangford lough with him to hear about that particularly successful technology.

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