Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham has criticised Business Secretary Grant Shapps' response as "extremely offensive" after asking a question in the House of Commons yesterday about the potential closure of Mitsubishi Chemicals in Billington.

In a Parliamentary session yesterday where Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, was taking questions from his fellow MPs about his department's work, Labour MP Alex Cunningham asked if he was aware of the latest threat to jobs on Teesside, and what his government was doing to help.

Last week it was announced that Mitsubishi Chemicals had began a consultation to close part of the Cassel Site in Billingham. It's thought the proposal will lead to the loss of more than 200 jobs. 

In his response, Mr Shapps said that he'd been in Teesside recently and that there were "new jobs coming about in new industries".

He referred to a lithium refinery at the Wilton International Chemicals Park in the freeport area which was granted planning permission from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council last week, however construction isn't expected to start until 2023 and a date for the site to be fully operational hasn't yet been announced.

The consultation period for jobs at Mitsubishi Chemicals in Billingham is expected to conclude in January 2023. 

Mr Cunningham, who's represented Stockton North since 2010, said in a statement: “The Business Secretary’s “jobs tomorrow” attitude in the face of a potential loss of hundreds of Teesside jobs is not only extremely offensive to Mitsubishi Chemical workers, but cold comfort to people who are now waiting to see if they will have employment in the new year.

“While his dismissiveness to potential redundancies is appalling it’s also sadly unsurprising. This is a Government that has abdicated responsibility over other local industrial matters such as the partial closure of CF Fertilisers, and allowed Teesside industries like SSI and Cleveland Bridge go to the wall.

“Not only does the Government have no ideas, it has no political will to tackle the issues facing industries like Mitsubishi.”

The lithium production scheme referred to by Mr Shapps has recently received a government grant of £600,000 through the Automotive Transformation Fund - a fund set up to help the UK move over to fully electric vehicles.

The Northern Echo: The lithium refinery's location at WiltonThe lithium refinery's location at Wilton (Image: Press release)

It's thought that one of the lithium refinery's main customers would be the Britishvolt electric battery factory near Blyth, where they hoped to create 3,000 jobs. However the firm nearly collapsed and had to secure emergency funding last month after the government failed to deliver grant funding it had previously promised, which in turn lead private investors to withhold their cash.

The government had committed to spend £100m in total for Britishvolt’s factory project but the release of funds was contingent on achieving construction milestones that have failed to be met.

With the potential collapse of Britishvolt's operations in Blyth it leaves questions about the viability of a new lithium refinery on Teesside in the short term, although it's expected that demand for lithium will be five times higher than current global production levels by the year 2050.

Mr Cunningham added: "I am concerned that the Government is relying solely on industry taking the initiative, while refusing to acknowledge the role government can play.

"I have repeatedly emphasised the need for a Government-led Industrial Strategy to support businesses, and would urge the Business Secretary to look seriously at this again.”

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