An essential pillar of Conservative party thinking has resulted in the collapse of Britishvolt, the electric vehicle battery maker and hoped-for saviour of the UK car industry. With a £3bn factory due to be built at Blyth, lighting up the Northumberland coast, the UK-owned and -run business would, in Boris Johnson’s words, “create thousands of jobs in our industrial heartlands” and boost electric vehicle production “as part of our green industrial revolution”.
Not for this government, nor any of its predecessors since 2010, the careful planning and collaboration with industry that propels investment in Japan, South Korea, China, Germany and the US. Ministers prefer to keep their hands by their sides and wallets firmly closed, in case they might be accused of a return to 1970s corporatism.
