On Monday evening, Richard spoke in the opposition day debate on Protecting Britain's Steel Industry.
Richard Fuller, member of the Business Select Committee and MP for North East Bedfordshire said:
During the debate, I warned again of the risks of excessive government borrowing and the need for politicians to face up to hard choices on public spending.
If the UK wishes to have a vibrant steel industry, it needs the sort of thorough review that the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is undertaking and if the industry requires additional investment by the UK taxpayer, the case for that will have to stand up well to Treasury scrutiny. The UK economy is already being taxed at its highest rate since the 1960s; Government debt is already at nearly 100% of GDP; last year the UK ran its largest ever peacetime deficit of £303 billion which means that we are borrowing one third of all public expenditure and in 2020, the Bank of England bought approximately 80% of that borrowing.
There may well be a good investment case for supporting our steel industry's green transition but there are many other demands on taxpayers such as social care reform and overall public spending has to come down.
Richard's full contribution to the debate can be watched here.
