More than 90 backbench Labour MPs are warning that the government's reindustrialisation plan will fail unless it is led decisively from a new Manchester office, according to a briefing paper seen by The Guardian. The MPs say the civil service has lost the knowledge and capacity needed to rebuild Britain's manufacturing base after decades of deindustrialisation and deregulation.
The Prime Minister has made industrial revival central to his pledge to deliver good growth across every postcode. Chancellor John Healey promised a new age of industrialisation in his speech at Labour's conference last month, ahead of delivering his first budget on Wednesday. However, the backbench group argues that the state has acquired behaviours that will inhibit reindustrialisation, has become less knowledgeable about industry and businesses, is unable to comprehensively plan and is slow to make decisions.
The MPs are calling on the government to pass a new Reindustrialisation Act with clear targets for job creation through rebuilding manufacturing capacity, and to hold ministers to account against those targets. They want the Prime Minister to give oversight of reindustrialisation to Louise Haigh, the first secretary, and base the work at No 10 North, the Manchester outpost established in July that has already taken on some responsibility for growth policy. The group also proposes transforming the National Wealth Fund, an arm's-length investment body, into a Reindustrialisation Development Corporation to provide capital for rebuilding UK industry.
Andy MacNae, the MP for Rossendale and Darwen and chair of the group, said there was inertia within government and the civil service that treated growth policy as something for cities already doing well. Instead, reindustrialisation must be about delivering jobs to places that need them most and making things that give national resilience in a turbulent world. Steve Yemm, MP for the former mining constituency of Mansfield, said countries around the world were reindustrialising while too many in Whitehall still treated industrial policy as dangerous nostalgia. Lorraine Beavers, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, warned that Whitehall does not fix problems unless it is told to.
The government's industrial strategy, published while Keir Starmer was Prime Minister, identified eight sectors ripe for growth including advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence. The briefing paper highlights that reindustrialisation involves policies across government, from procurement to education, citing the recent decision to nationalise British Steel as an example.
For businesses and workers across regions outside the south-east, the outcome of this debate will determine whether the government's reindustrialisation promises translate into actual job creation and investment in their areas.