Fishburn Coke Works (Hansard, 16 July 1986)

§ Mr. Tony Blair (Sedgefield)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and importantc matter that should have urgent consideration, namely. the announcement yesterday by British Smokeless Fuels that it will close the Fishburn coke works with the loss of over 200 jobs. Three years ago almost to the day, this House debated a proposal to close Fishburn. That debate was the climax of a successful campaign to keep the works open. At that time, male unemployment in the Fishburn area stood at 48.9 per cent., with total unemployment standing at more than 40 per cent.

Today, we are faced with a fresh closure proposal. Yet unemployment in my constituency is worse, with more than 4,000 jobs, mainly in the manufacturing sector, having been lost in the Sedgefield district alone. If Fishburn coke works were to close, the largest employer in Fishburn would be the ambulance station, and even that is under threat.

This is a specific matter because it involves the closure of a coke works and the loss of more than 200 jobs. It is important because communities such as mine face unemployment that increasingly has an out-of-city dimension every bit as critical as inner city dimensions.

The matter is urgent because, over the past few months, although we are told that we are in the fourth year of an economic recovery, we have faced the loss of some 400 jobs at TI at Blaydon, some 300 at ICI at Billingham, 2,500 at the Teesside and Sunderland shipyards, 800 at Tyneside shipyards, and 850 at NEI.

The question that people in the north-east ask is, how much more unemployment in the name of market forces must we tolerate?