MPs face choice on British Steel as ministers aim to ‘take back control’
MPs face a choice between “taking back control” of British Steel or seeing the end of primary steelmaking in the UK, the industry minister said ahead of a debate on emergency legislation.
Both the Commons and the Lords will break from Easter recess for a highly unusual Saturday sitting to debate a bill aimed at blocking the company’s Chinese owners, Jingye, from closing blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant.
The plans would see taxpayer money used to provide materials to the steelworks and open the door to a transfer of ownership after Sir Keir Starmer warned the future of the firm “hangs in the balance”.
Speaking to Sky News on Saturday morning, industry minister Sarah Jones suggested negotiations with Jingye on saving the plant had broken down, accusing the company of failing to act “in good faith”.
She said: “This problem has now become existential because the company have refused to bring in the raw materials that we need to keep the blast furnaces operating.
“If blast furnaces are closed in an unplanned way, they can never be reopened, the steel just solidifies in those furnaces and nothing can be done.
“So the choice that is facing MPs today is do we want to take back control, to give the business secretary the power to act as a company director and to instruct the company to ensure we get the raw materials and we keep the blast furnaces operating, or do we want to see the end of primary steel making in this country and the loss of jobs?”
Saturday’s emergency legislation will also provide for criminal sanctions if executives fail to comply with instructions to keep the blast furnaces open.
Jones said the government would “step in” if British Steel’s owners did not co-operate, with the company “liable for any costs that we incur”.
She added: “We have the £2.5bn fund for steel which we had in our manifesto, that we will use if necessary, so there will be no extra costs to the Exchequer that we don’t already have in our plans.”
Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, has said it invested more than £1.2bn to maintain operations amid ongoing production instability and “significant” financial losses of around £700,000 a day.
The proposals to close Scunthorpe’s furnaces had sparked fears of job losses at the plant, which employs thousands of people.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Jingye had confirmed the plans despite months of talks and a £500m co-investment offer from government, leaving ministers “no choice” but to act to spare job losses and save the plant.
Ministers hope to secure private investment to save the plant in the longer term, but Jones admitted on Saturday that there were currently no companies willing to make an offer.
Saturday’s legislation is intended to provide an urgent temporary solution in the face of the threat to close the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe until a longer-term plan is agreed, and full nationalisation remains an option.
Unions welcomed the move but Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Labour of having “bungled the negotiations” and said “their incompetence has led to a last-minute recall of parliament”.
Liberal Democrat Sir Ed Davey called the debate an opportunity to advance “a serious plan for the sustainable future of domestic steel production” while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage reiterated his backing for nationalisation.
The Commons sitting will begin at 11am and the House of Lords from midday in the first parliamentary recall on a Saturday since 1982, when MPs returned after the start of the Falklands War.
By Christopher McKeon, PA Political Correspondent