'Wake up, it's not the 1980s anymore!' Starmer tells Sunak in bitter clash

22 May 2023 , 16:19

1040     0

Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the PM to "wake up!" (Image: PA)

Rishi Sunak was tonight warned to “wake up” and revive British manufacturing as he was accused of overseeing “managed decline".

Keir Starmer accused the Prime Minister of failing to do enough to boost the industry for semiconductors - a vital component of electronic chips.

The Labour leader compared the UK Government’s approach with rival nations’ - including the White House’s key green power drive, the $500billion (£462.6bn) Inflation Reduction Act.

“Whilst others build resilience and seize opportunities, this Government seems content with managed decline,” Mr Starmer told MPs.

“When the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, this Government’s response wasn't to outline what opportunities this offered to Britain, it was to say that it was dangerous and to suggest that an active industrial strategy is somehow not the British way.

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

Rishi Sunak defended the Government's approach (PA)

“Wake up, it's not the 1980s anymore - a race is on, we need to be in it and we need to win our share of the jobs of the future.

"We can't afford to be stuck in the changing rooms complaining about how unfair life is."

But, updating the Commons after last weekend’s G7 summit in Hiroshima, the PM blasted the “mistaken view that is heard too often - the idea that Britain is somehow in retreat from the world stage or that our influence is in decline”.

He added: “I reject that utterly.”

The PM insisted the Government was working to “diversify our supply chains in areas like critical minerals and semiconductors and prevent China using economic coercion to interfere with the sovereignty of others”.

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberavon constituency includes Britain’s biggest steelworks, Tata at Port Talbot, blasted the PM for not doing more to boost the steel sector.

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock raised the steel industry in the Commons (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Mr Kinnock, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel, said it was “a key industry that builds our economic and national security and resilience”.

He said China, the US and EU governments were “investing hundreds of billions of pounds in their steel industries”.

The PM claimed: “The Government is committed to supporting the UK steel industry.”

* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook

8 money changes coming in February including Universal Credit and passport fees

Ben Glaze