Graham has joined political leaders from across Hull and East Yorkshire to call on the Prime Minister to intervene to help secure the future of INEOS at Saltend.
Graham, Hull East MP Karl Turner, Hull City Council Leader Mike Ross and East Riding of Yorkshire Council Leader Anne Handley are calling for urgent action while INEOS’s three chemical plants remain mothballed and its 245-strong workforce remains in place.
Their intervention comes after INEOS stopped production at the three plants because it says high UK gas prices have made them uneconomic.
The group wants the Prime Minister to bring together the relevant parts of Government, INEOS and the wider Saltend industrial cluster to examine every credible option for getting the plants producing again.
The letter warns that the consequences could extend beyond INEOS because Saltend is an integrated chemicals park, with businesses sharing infrastructure, energy and specialist services.
It also makes the case that the problems at Saltend expose a wider challenge for Britain: whether energy-intensive manufacturers can remain internationally competitive while facing significantly higher energy costs than some overseas competitors.
The local intervention is being made across political lines.
Mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire Luke Campbell is writing separately to the Prime Minister about Saltend.
Hull MPs Emma Hardy and Dame Diana Johnson, who are Government Ministers, are also making their views clear to the Prime Minister together.
Graham has already asked the Business Secretary for an urgent meeting following the INEOS announcement and has been working with companies at Saltend, Ministers and regulators over the pressures facing the site.
The immediate objective is to prevent mothballing becoming permanent closure.
Graham said:
“This is bigger than party politics. We all want the same thing: those 245 skilled people still working at Saltend and these plants producing again.
“That’s why Karl, Mike, Anne and I are coming together to take the case directly to the Prime Minister. Luke is writing separately and Emma and Diana are making their views clear within Government too.
“The plants haven’t closed permanently. The workforce is still together. That gives us something to fight for, but the window won’t stay open forever.
“Saltend also exposes a much bigger problem for Britain. We can talk about reindustrialising the North, but we have to make it economically possible for the industries already here to compete.
“I want the Prime Minister to get the relevant Ministers around the table with INEOS and look at every credible option for getting these plants producing again.
“We have already lost Vivergo next door. We must do everything we reasonably can to stop the same thing happening here.”
