We must protect our steel industry as it is vital for jobs and for our national security - Jake Richards

On the Conservatives’ watch, the UK’s car industry has been gutted. Vehicle production has dropped from 1.4m vehicles in 2010 to less than 900,000 last year.

Our steel-making capacity has shrunk by more than a third. This has had a big impact on Yorkshire, which relies on steel jobs more than any other region. And where’s the plan to stop the rot? There isn’t one.

Alexander Stafford, the Tory MP in Rother Valley, has seemingly shown no interest in protecting jobs and ensuring our manufacturing sector flourishes. The Conservatives binned whatever industrial strategy they had a few years ago. The UK’s steel industry is a shining example of their failure. Asked recently if the UK would always have a steel industry, Conservative business secretary Kemi Badenoch said “nothing is ever a given”.

Labour’s answer to that question is simple: yes, we will. Because it’s vital to jobs, and it’s vital to our national and economic security.

No other major economy would dream of giving up on its own steel industry and nor should we.

The Conservatives would rather we import cheap steel from places like China — made cheaply by undercutting high working standards in the UK — than back UK steelmakers and UK workers. They just don’t get it.

Labour will end the offshoring of jobs. Under a Labour government, the Royal Navy’s new fleet of support ships would be built in Britain by British workers. But that’s just the start.

In South Yorkshire, Labour is showing the difference we can make. At the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at Orgreave, Labour mayor for South Yorkshire — Oliver Coppard — and the Labour council in Sheffield have brought in some of the world’s biggest manufacturing companies, including US aviation giant Boeing and British manufacturer Rolls Royce.

This is bringing good, well-paid jobs to the region. Average salaries are almost 50 per cent above the average across Rotherham, at around £46,000 a year.

It is also bringing high-quality apprenticeships for young people. Almost 1,400 apprenticeships have been created so far and almost 500 have been taken up by people across Rotherham.

We want to see more high-quality apprenticeships, especially for those leaving school who don’t go to university, leading to jobs our young people can build a career, a life and a family on.

Labour has an industrial strategy because we believe our government must back our industries.

The pandemic showed how reliant we are on other countries for some vital supplies. Labour would back UK manufacturing so we are less exposed to unreliable partners.

Labour will put manufacturing at the heart of our economic strategy. Because we know how important it is to places like Rotherham.

Jake Richards is the Labour Party’s Parliamentary candidate in Rother Valley.