A North East MP has clashed with a Government Minister over the lack of any national commemoration for the 200th anniversary of Robert Stephenson founding the world’s first locomotive plant in the region.
Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah said the founding of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1823 had “developed the key enabling technology of the industrial revolution, transforming the physical, economic and social landscape of the United Kingdom and, indeed, countries around the world.” She said it was important to mark the occasion to both celebrate the country’s industrial heritage and also to “inspire a new generation of industrial innovators to solve the great challenges of our age.”
Ms Onwurah - herself a working engineer before moving into politics - clashed with Rail Minister Huw Merriman, who repeatedly said that the Government wanted to celebrate instead the bicentenary of opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway in two years’ time, rather than the anniversary of the founding of Robert Stephenson and Company this year.
