By Justin Madders

MP for Ellesmere Port

THE latest from Rishi Sunak would appear to suggest he believes only the Conservative Party is interested in car ownership.

The Prime Minister has told everyone he is supporting people to "use their cars to do all the things that matter to them" – the inference being that anyone who does not support his motoring policies is somehow anti-car.

Well on behalf of my constituents allow me to inform him that pursuing policies which support reducing speed limits as part of a road safety drive and making cleaner air as part of our efforts to combat the climate change emergency do not make me or my electors opposed to vehicle ownership and/or journeys by car. Indeed, for many in the constituency, such is the parlous state of public transport, that car journeys are an essential.

What also matters to residents in my constituency is to ensure that the Stellantis, formerly Vauxhall’s, plant in Ellesmere Port continues to thrive in the way it has for well over half a century, as well as ensuring that all-electric vehicle production takes place in the town for decades to come.

I made my position clear in a House of Commons debate on the Automative Industry just before the summer Parliamentary recess. From the outset I pointed out to colleagues that Ellesmere Port is synonymous with Vauxhall Motors. Indeed, generations of Ellesmere Port and Neston families and others living in places nearby have happily worked there.

The days of manufacturing petrol and diesel vehicles at the plant are gone and nowadays modern-day owner Stellantis, with the benefit of highly-skilled and permanent unionised workers, will soon be producing the electric vehicles of the future. I am looking forward to visiting the plant at the end of the month when the first all electric vans will roll off the production line.

In the years to come we will no doubt get to the stage where most vehicles on our roads will be electric, but in order for that to be the case we will need to have a ready supply of batteries to run them. So I concentrated a large part of my speech on the need to set up about 10 gigafactories across the UK where the car batteries can be produced.

Colleagues in the Commons debate had highlighted difficulties being encountered in their areas in establishing gigafactories with the message from the industry being clear that if we do not get enough battery plants established then the cost of importing them will become so prohibitive that it will simply no longer be economic for the majority of manufacturers to continue.

While I cannot claim credit for the announcement myself, I was delighted to learn some days later that a deal had been struck for a new £4 billion gigafactory to be built by Tata in Somerset. This is the progress we need for us to succeed as a progressive nation. But this is just one plant; we need many more to secure the future of the industry.