Mark Tami Column: Jobs, Policing and Greensill ….

This has been a busy couple of weeks both in Westminster and back in Alyn & Deeside.

I had a productive meeting with Keir Starmer and the Labour business front bench last week to discuss plans for the future of steel.

Manufacturing is vital to the future of North Wales, as seen by our Steel plant’s recent 125th birthday locally.

Yet, the UK Government continues to lack a clear plan for the future of steel.

While offering warm words about funding for UK steel plants if they decarbonise, they do not offer enough industry support to allow this to happen.

In 2019, the UK and over 60 countries committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. China, as the top worldwide emitter of CO2, did not join this pledge.

Buying their steel does not make our planet any better off or benefit Alyn and Deeside.

Jobs

We need a comprehensive, UK-wide plan to protect jobs and develop the industry. 

The recent reports of British Gas using fire-and-rehire tactics on employees are unacceptable.

Similarly, Magellan Aerospace, in Wrexham, has plans to hire workers after recently making redundancies – those that lost their jobs should be offered re-employment.

Why were 240 redundancies announced last October, whilst the company had plans to increase capacity and production at that plant? The Government must move to ban ‘fire and rehire’ schemes and strengthen worker’s rights. 

Policing

Since 2010, police numbers have plummeted, as the Tories have made deep cuts.

At the same time, crime has gone up. Antisocial behaviour reports have risen by five million over the past decade in the UK.

I back Labour’s plan to stop this and put more police on the streets.

We need a strong voice for North Wales to stand up to Priti Patel in funding negotiations; that’s why I’m backing Andy Dunbobbin for Police & Crime Commissioner.

[All candidates standing in the North Wales Police & Crime Commissioner election on May 6 can be viewed here: https://north.wales/pcc2021 ]

Greensill

A few weeks ago, I wrote in my column about the worrying implications of the High Court finding that Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, acted unlawfully by refusing to disclose Government contracts to the public in the given time.

It appears that the Tory Government continues to believe that there is one rule for themselves and a different rule for everyone else, as more information emerges surrounding the Greensill lobbying scandal. 

The scandal involves extensive links between the Conservative party and Greensill, a supply chain financing company.

This includes David Cameron secretly sending texts to Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to push civil servants to give the company an emergency loan.

David Cameron also organised for Matt Hancock to meet with Lex Greensill in 2019 to discuss a private payment scheme for the NHS.

The links between Greensill and the Conservative party go deep and demonstrate privileged access. 

By having a ‘revolving door’ between lobbyists and top civil servants & politicians, Greensill, and any other company in a similar situation, gains an unfair advantage in accessing government funds, while millions are excluded from the Government’s support schemes. 

The inquiry launched by Boris Johnson is inadequate and does not look at dodgy lobbying rules. 

I was disappointed that the Government voted down the Labour motion to establish a select committee of MPs from all parties to look into the Greensill affair.