Full LinkedIn post from Perran Moon19 Nov 2025 12:13
Ahead of this weekend’s incredibly important announcement at the G20 of the UK’s critical minerals strategy, I met the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
He already knew about our mining heritage having lived in Cornwall during a winter for 6 months before he became an MP, but I was able to impress on him what an absolutely vital moment this is for jobs and economic regeneration right across Cornwall and the North East of England.
I explained to the Prime Minister that, from tin to tungsten to lithium, we can create thousands of secure, well paid jobs in production, processing and the supply chain, across communities that have suffered low wage, insecure jobs for decades.
In the 5 mins I had with Keir, I tried to express to him that if the UK government invests and gives us a chance to show what we can do, we will deliver economic regeneration, break free from reliance on Chinese imports and accelerate our transition to a fossil-fuel free future. He listened carefully, made notes and summarised what I’d said before I heard the inevitable knock on the door for his next appointment.
In a world blighted by cynicism about the impact that politics can have to change lives, I’m not sure there’s too much more that the 4 Cornish Labour MPs could have done to ensure that domestic critical minerals are at the very top of this Labour Government’s economic agenda. You’ll hopefully hear more about critical minerals over the next week or so!