Torsten Bell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Sept 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 11 September.

• 11 Sept 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Back in the 1990s, the Conservatives claimed that the minimum wage would cost 1 million jobs. Instead, low earners have seen the fastest pay rises year after year, with no effect on employment— [ Interruption. ] They opposed it. Today, and on their watch, 1 million workers are on zero-hours contracts and more than 1 million people have no sick pay whatsoever, facing risks that nobody in this House would bear. The details matter, but it is outdated nonsense—

• 11 Sept 2024 · Port Talbot Transition Project · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and for all his hard work in recent months. It is clear that the delays in the negotiations have had a very real cost. When I was visiting Port Talbot on Friday, what the workers and the management wanted to know was whether those delays had now come to an end. Can he reassure the House that we will do everything we can to make sure that the construction does now get going on the future of this plant?

• 5 Sept 2024 · UK Steel Manufacturing · Hansard source

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  The steel industry is a cornerstone of the south Wales economy as a whole, and the Minister will know that there is concern right across the Swansea bay communities about these developments, and I am visiting the plant in Port Talbot tomorrow to hear more about them. Will the Minister give us reassurance that the hard work she is doing will continue to be hand in glove with the Welsh Government and local councils? They are working day in, day out to make sure that there is a future for the steel industry and all these communities.

• 29 Jul 2024 · Public Spending: Inheritance · Hansard source

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  Congratulations on your new post, Madam Deputy Speaker. There can be reasonable political debate across the House about the total levels of public spending—there was a lot of that during the election campaign, with our calling for higher levels of public investment—but there should be complete agreement about the need for the Treasury to ensure that public money is well spent. At the top of that is making sure that the policies and commitments of every Department match their budgets. We hear from experts right around the country today that they do not match those budgets, so can the Chancellor reassure this ex-Treasury official, this House and my Swansea constituents that this will never happen under this Labour Government?

• 18 Jul 2024 · Clean Energy Superpower Mission · Hansard source

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  I, too, welcome the Secretary of State to his place. It is very appropriate that he is bringing this level of energy to the debate, and we all hope to see much more of that in the years ahead. It is a big contrast to the previous 10 years of inaction, which has cost us, not just in terms of our energy security, but in wasted opportunity. I wish to touch on one of those opportunities, which is the huge tidal power potential that Britain has in Swansea, and not just in Sefton. Does he agree that it is time to seize that opportunity, rather than waste it?