Pat McFadden responds to the government's cancellation of Sheffield Forgemasters loan

Pat McFadden MP, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary, said in response to the government's decision to cancel an £80 million loan to Sheffield Forgemasters which was to support the civil nuclear supply chain:

"This decision is short sighted, damaging and wrong.  
 
"The Labour Government approved a loan – not a grant – to Sheffield Forgemasters which was to have been repaid over time.
 
"The Sheffield Forgemasters proposal was never just about aid to one company.  It was about the UK having an ambition to be a success in the growing world supply chain in civil nuclear power.  
 
"It would have given Britain the ability to make key components for the nuclear and other industries that currently have to be sourced from outside Europe.  
 
"By turning their backs on this proposal which was important both to manufacturing and to Britain’s strategy to make the most of the transition to a lower carbon economy, the new government is tearing up the roots of future industrial success and employment growth.  It exposes them as behaving like the very banks they like to criticise.  A deficit reduction strategy needs to be accompanied by a plan for growth and future industrial success.  With this statement the Government shows they have no such plan."

You can sign up to Labour's Sheffield MP's petition about Forgemasters here.