Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the future of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant “hangs in the balance” as he unveiled emergency plans on Friday to take control of the company.
The prime minister will pass a bill through parliament in a single day on Saturday in an extraordinary step aimed at securing the future of the site.
He stopped short of saying the government would nationalise the firm, but said its emergency bill will give ministers “the power to direct steel companies in England, which we will use to protect the Scunthorpe site”.
Officials made it clear on Friday the emergency bill was being tabled in a bid to keep the site’s blast furnaces online, with nationalisation the likely next step.
After crunch talks with British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye, officials in the Department for Business and Trade believed its intention was to stop the supply of raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces operating. If the furnaces are stopped, it is extremely difficult and costly to them back online.
The government’s Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill will give business secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct British Steel staff to order raw materials and keep the furnaces online. It will mean British taxpayers picking up the bill for the loss-making site, although government insiders stressed that the alternative, which would lead to thousands of job losses, would also be extremely costly.
It means MPs will be recalled on a Saturday during recess for the first time since the Falklands War began in 1982. The last time parliament was recalled was on 18 August 2021 to debate the crisis in Afghanistan.
Announcing the recall, Sir Keir said: “This afternoon, the future of British steel hangs in the balance. Jobs. Investment. Growth. Our economic and national security… are all on the line.
“This moment could have happened at any time. But it has happened now. And I will not stand by. There is no time to waste. So we are recalling parliament tomorrow for a Saturday sitting.
“We will pass emergency legislation in one day to give the business secretary the powers to do everything possible to stop the closure of these blast furnaces.
“And as I have said, we will keep all options on the table.”
Ministers fear closure of the furnace would leave the UK without any domestic virgin steelmakers.
A message sent to Labour MPs, seen by The Independent, said they will be asked to support the government passing “emergency legislation”, with whips demanding to know their locations and whether they will be available to vote.
Business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds and officials met with the chief executives of Jingye and British Steel on Wednesday for discussions on steelmaking in Scunthorpe.
The Chinese firm has said it has invested more than £1.2bn into British Steel to maintain operations and claims it suffered financial losses of around £700,000 a day.
A statement after the meeting said “both sides welcomed continued cooperation in talks to find a way forward”.
The Saturday sitting will begin at 11am, when MPs will debate “legislative proposals to ensure the continued operation of British Steel blast furnaces is safeguarded”, according to the office of Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker.
In a letter to MPs, Sir Lindsay said he was satisfied the “public interest” required the recall from the Easter break.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of steelworkers’ union Community, said: “We welcome this decision to recall parliament.
“It is in the national interest that a solution is found to secure a future for British Steel as a vital strategic business.
“We can’t allow Britain to become the only G7 country without primary steelmaking capacity.
“In the absence of a deal with Jingye to continue blast furnace operations at Scunthorpe as part of a transition to greener steelmaking, it is essential that we see urgent action taken to bring British Steel into public ownership.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for the government to nationalise steelmaking in Scunthorpe by the end of this week after he toured the giant plant on Tuesday.
Responding to Downing Street’s announcement, he said: “China has no interest in keeping the steelworks open. Reform have been clear from the start that the only option we have to save this vital strategic asset, and thousands of jobs in the process, is to nationalise British Steel.
“We are calling on the government to do the right thing tomorrow and bring it back into public ownership.”
Source: independent.co.uk
