Sarah Champion to Call on Government to Deliver for Rotherham’s Steel and Glass Making Industries

Sarah Champion MP will today call on the Government to stand by Rotherham’s steel and glass making industries.

Steel and glass making are significant employers in Sarah’s Rotherham constituency, which hosts both Liberty Steel and Beatson Clark, a leading manufacturer of glass products.

Sarah’s comments come following the announcement that Liberty has reached an agreement in principle with creditors to restructure its global debt.

Sarah will call on the Government to deliver both long-term certainty on energy prices and to work with the industries to ensure a level playing field with international competitors.

Speaking during a debate on Securing Britain’s Industrial Future, Sarah will say:

“The current crisis must be a wake-up call. UK industries cannot hope to compete internationally if they continue to be hamstrung by a government whose industrial strategy is based entirely upon inertia.’

‘It is simply not good enough for Government Ministers to stand at the dispatch box and tell this House how important these industries are, to recognise their contributions to the UK economy and then hang them out to dry.”

Sarah will point to the Government’s failure to act on Britain’s uncompetitive energy market, which has seen energy intensive industries like steel and glass production face substantially higher costs than competitors.

Commenting, Sarah said:

“For nearly a decade, I have been calling for the Government to act on the long-term barriers standing in the way of steel and glass producers reaching their potential as power-houses of Britain’s industrial base.’

‘But time and time again, the Government’s response has been to praise the industries, say how valued they are and then do nothing.’

‘We cannot afford to waste another decade. The Government must deliver for steel and glass both in the short term and in the years ahead.”