Nia Griffith MP, Secretary of the all-party parliamentary steel group and Aberavon MP Hywel Francis, who represents Port Talbot, the area worst affected by the recently announced TATA steel redundancies, have led a delegation of Welsh steel constituency MPs to meet with Rt Hon David Jones, Secretary of State.
Speaking up at the meeting Nia Griffith MP stressed the following:
“We know from our meetings with Dr Karl Ulrich Kohler, the Head of TATA Europe, that although TATA have invested very substantially in the new blast furnace in Port Talbot, Dr Kohler remains very concerned at what he perceives as a lack of coherent industrial strategy in the UK. We therefore want you as Secretary of State for Wales to work with your cabinet colleagues and do everything you can to stimulate demand for steel in the UK. We are calling on the government to get on with the delivery of big infrastructure projects like rail and construction, and to use procurement policy to ensure that such projects use local factories in the supply chain and result in jobs for UK steel and manufacturing workers.”
In his response the Secretary of State for Wales agreed to visit Port Talbot and have a further meeting with representatives of local government, the private sector and trades unions across south west Wales in the New Year