Labour plots further £5bn investment in electric car industry
Labour has pledged to spend £2bn on the construction of three electric car battery factories in parts of the country which have lost thousands of car industry jobs in the last year.
The plan would see a Labour government plough the money into so-called gigafactories in south Wales, Stoke and Swindon, with each site employing more than 3,000 people.
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Honda announced plans to pull out of its Swindon factory earlier this year, in a move that will cost about 3,500 people their jobs, while Ford also plans to shutter its engine factory in Bridgend, south Wales, which employs 1,700 people.
Speaking at the party conference in Brighton today, shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey announced Labour would also make £3bn available to manufacturers to invest in electric cars.
Long Bailey told the conference: “The automotive sector is one of the UK’s industrial success stories. However, the sector is under siege from Brexit uncertainty and the government’s lack of ambition on electrification.
“If we want our automotive sector to flourish, we need a government who is not afraid to intervene.
The combined £5bn investment comes as part of Labour’s plan to tackle climate change. It follows announcements yesterday which included pouring £3.6bn into building electric car charging networks, and rolling out a fleet of 30,000 electric hire cars onto Britain’s roads.
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CBI deputy director general Josh Hardie said investing in the electric car industry “is exactly what we need”.
But he added: “However, in the push to reach net-zero as fast and as cost-effectively as possible, renationalisation will hugely disrupt the investment needed in the energy sector to decarbonise. The Labour Party needs to work with business to make the transition a success.”