UK chemicals industry praises government progress but warns of ‘scary’ agendas amid leadership turmoil

GOVERNMENT progress in supporting the UK’s declining chemicals sector has been praised by industry figures, although one senior representative has warned of “scary” messaging from some camps expected to challenge the prime minister’s leadership. 

Speaking at the ChemUK trade show in Birmingham on Wednesday, Chemical Industries Association (CIA) education and employment policy director Simon Marsh praised the prominence given to the chemicals sector in the government’s Industrial Strategy, published last June, saying “the penny is dropping” among policymakers. 

However, Marsh warned that the “current political turmoil” could make action more difficult. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is likely to face a leadership challenge less than two years after taking office. 

While the CIA is politically neutral, Marsh said: “We want to be able to influence [policy] so that it’s a pro-business agenda…and I’m not sure we’ve got it.”

Starmer’s likely opponents in a leadership contest include Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, former health secretary Wes Streeting and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. Streeting is widely viewed as the most business-friendly of the potential candidates, while Rayner has faced criticism from business groups over employment rights legislation she previously backed. 

The focus of Marsh’s speech was “resilience”, which he said “cannot just be the discipline of emergency response. It has to be about long-term strength”. Domestic plant closures – 25 in the last five years – have led to “over reliance on imports”, Marsh said, adding that there is now “a broad realisation [that this] can create vulnerabilities”. 

Concluding his speech, he said: “To whoever the prime minister is, current or future, if you want to lead a country which is resilient, work with us, give us the right policies for the chemical industry and we will deliver the right resilience for the country.”

In a separate speech at ChemUK, IChemE president Raffaella Ocone praised the Industrial Strategy but criticised the government’s attitude towards plant closures.

“The government doesn’t seem to understand that decarbonisation cannot be reached with deindustrialisation,” she said.