MP COLUMN: Investment in Blyth Valley is key to its financial future

This often means meetings in Westminster with ministers, explaining what would make a difference to people’s lives here, and making the case for investment that will increase prosperity. I always extend an invitation to other MP’s and ministers to visit and see for themselves both the problems we face and the opportunities we have.

Two weeks ago Kwasi Karteng MP, Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy visited the area to announce a major investment thought to be around £100m in Britishvolt, which will unlock another £1.7bn in private investment and bring 3,000 direct jobs and 5,000 supply chain jobs.

His key message was “We are re-industrialising our economy and the North East is key to that”. Blyth Valley will be a major part of that and I am determined that our area cements its place as a major global centre for the renewable energy sector and green-tech jobs.

We also took the minister to visit JDR Cables who are making a huge investment in their site over the road from Britishvolt.

Last week Gillian Keegan MP, Minister for Care and Mental Health visited Cramlington and met with representatives of local home care business Home Instead, and then went to the Cramlington Man Shed. This was an opportunity to showcase the great work happening on the ground in Blyth Valley, for the minister to hear first-hand of the challenges facing these frontline services and to hear about the government plans to improve social care.

On a separate issue, I take very seriously the anger expressed by many of my constituents about events at Downing Street. It is clear that the conduct of staff at 10 Downing Street, including the Prime Minister, was not in accordance with the rules which they sought to inflict on the rest of the country and I condemn this utterly.

The PM has to take responsibility personally and I welcome his recognition of this and the apology that he gave to Parliament and the country. We now await the final conclusions of the police and Sue Gray investigations.