Sajid Javid spurned Welsh steel crisis talks to attend US conference

Last Updated: April 4, 2016By
Sajid Javid: Too busy with all-expenses-paid junkets abroad to do his job.

Sajid Javid: Too busy with all-expenses-paid junkets abroad to do his job.

Sajid David was listed as a participant last month at a US conference organised by a rightwing libertarian thinktank, which took place after a delegation of Labour MPs had failed to secure a meeting with him to press their concerns about the future of Tata steel in the weeks leading up to the crisis.

Welsh Labour MPs led by Stephen Kinnock had sought a meeting with the business secretary, but were instead granted a meeting with Javid’s junior, Anna Soubry, on 3 March.

Javid was in the UK on that day, addressing the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference, but is listed as speaker on the following two days at a conference organised in a southern US resort by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an influential thinktank and lobby group that is vociferously opposed to state intervention.

The Labour delegation that attempted to meet him in early March had wanted to discuss the future of the Welsh steel industry, and in particular Tata’s commitment to Wales.

Javid has had close ties with the AEI, which is funded by American billionaires the Koch brothers. Parliament’s register of members’ interests shows that he accepted thousands of pounds from the thinktank in the previous two years to attend events there, covering travel expenses, subsistence and accommodation. It included £6,094.56 to attend the Sea Island conference in Georgia in March last year, and more than £3,000 to visit in 2014.

The thinktank is opposed to the type of state intervention that the beleaguered workers at Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks are holding out for. It has been heavily involved for decades in banging the drum for untrammelled free enterprise capitalism.

Source: Sajid Javid spurned Welsh steel crisis talks to attend US conference | Politics | The Guardian

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3 Comments

  1. NMac April 4, 2016 at 8:22 am - Reply

    This character Javid is just another thoroughly dishonest and thoroughly corrupt self-serving Tory. He cares not a jot for the people of Britain or for the country’s business interests and, according to one newspaper report, he has even admitted he didn’t see the Tata crisis coming. This is a very damning admission to make, because the rest of the country saw it coming months/weeks ago. It is noticeable that he managed to very efficiently organise his own all-expenses paid foreign holiday – didn’t overlook any of that. Corruption, Corruption, Corruption.

  2. Terry Davies April 4, 2016 at 10:31 am - Reply

    no surprise, Is stephen kinnock s red tory selective in what he gets involved in , or has vested political interests in reporting this.
    I note he was not complaining when crabb lied to the welsh assembly.

  3. mrmarcpc April 4, 2016 at 3:13 pm - Reply

    Javid is another typical useless, arrogant, clueless, lazy, greedy, tory turd who doesn’t give a toss about the people of the UK or her industries!

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