MPs have backed the government’s plans to take control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant during an emergency debate in parliament.
While MPs voted in a rare emergency debate on a bill for the government to take over British Steel, workers outside of the plant blocked Chinese executives’ access to key areas, it has been reported.
Sir Keir Starmer called the session on Saturday to debate emergency legislation aimed at blocking the firm’s Chinese owners, Jingye, from closing blast furnaces at the Lincolnshire site, after the prime minister warned the future of the company “hangs in the balance”.
After crunch talks with 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.
Officials made it clear on Friday the bill allowing the government to take control of the plant was being tabled in a bid to keep the site’s blast furnaces online. It was approved by MPs following several hours of debate.
The legislation will give the government “the power to direct steel companies in England, which we will use to protect the Scunthorpe site”, Downing Street said.
Steelworkers union back government plan after Chinese owners failed to consult ‘in good faith’
A union representing Steelworkers in Britain has backed the government after it won a vote to take over British Steel.
Alasdair McDiarmid Assistant General Secretary of Community Union, The Steelworkers Union, said: “Community Union welcomes and wholeheartedly backs the Labour Government’s decisive action to take control of British Steel.
“The government has sought to negotiate constructively and even offered to buy raw materials to stop the blast furnaces closing, but Jingye have shut down every avenue to keep the furnaces running and avoid imminent job losses.
“Moreover, Jingye has not consulted in good faith with the unions, and they now need to get out of the road to give space to all those who want to see British Steel succeed.
“Today’s intervention by the UK Labour government is a first step towards securing a sustainable future for British Steel and steel communities like Scunthorpe.
“We will continue to work with the government to deliver this future and build a thriving UK steel industry which supports thousands of good jobs and the economic security of our country.”
PM makes surprise visit to British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant
The prime minister met British Steel workers near Scunthorpe shortly after MPs backed a rescue plan for the steelworks.
Sir Keir Starmer told the steelworkers: “You are the people who have kept this going.
“You and your colleagues for years have been the backbone of British Steel, and it’s really important that we recognise that.
“And I felt it was really important today, having been in Parliament this morning, to come straight up here to see you face to face to have that discussion with you.
“Because this shouldn’t be a removed thing that’s happening down in Westminster, in Parliament, it should be something that’s living and breathing. It’s your jobs, your lives, your communities, your families.”
The steelworkers thanked the Prime Minister for the Government’s action, with one adding: “We’re not there yet, we’ve still got a lot of hard work to do.”
British Steel Bill passes second reading
The Bill has received its second reading and the Lords has been adjourned for an hour to allow time for peers to put forward amendments.
Video: Moment MPs back move to take control of British Steel in emergency debate
Following several hours of debate, House Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle put the question to a vocal vote in the Commons, declaring, “The ayes have it.”
If the plant was to shut down, the UK would become the only member of the G7 without the ability to make virgin steel, which would be a risk to the country’s economic security, the government has said.
MPs back the government’s British Steel rescue plan – now the hard work for ministers begins
The government has secured cross-party support for its plans for British Steel. But in a lot of ways, that was the easy part.
Now the hard work begins. Ministers are this afternoon giving themselves sweeping and wide-ranging powers to intervene in a public company.
Which will be difficult enough. But then they have also the harder job of trying to find a buyer.
Already the business secretary has conceded that nationalisation is the “likely” outcome.
One former cabinet minister told The Independent that while he thought the government was doing the right thing “it’s a risky job they have given themselves”
British Steel workers prevented Chinese owners from entering Scunthorpe plant
Workers at the British Steel Scunthorpe plant prevented Chinese executives from its owner Jingye from gaining access to key areas of the steelworks, The Times reported.
The newspaper said that police were called to the scene and forced the executives to leave.
Humberside Police said: “Officers were in attendance at British Steel in Scunthorpe at 8.30am this morning following a suspected breach of the peace.
“Upon attending, conducting checks and speaking to individuals in the area, there were no concerns raised and no arrests were made.”
Nationalisation of British Steel should be long term outcome
A Labour peer has said nationalising British Steel should be a long term outcome after MPs voted in an emergency bill to give the government control of the steelworks plant.
Labour peer Lord Sikka said the Government was trying to avoid explicitly saying it would nationalise British Steel, but said it should be the long-term outcome.
He said: “My Lords the minister said that the Government seeks to take control of blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, without taking control of British Steel.
“It’s really trying to avoid the words nationalisation and public ownership, but that is really where we are heading. British Steel’s most recent accounts show falling turnover, increasingly losses and negative net worth. It is bankrupt and the compensation should be very little, if any.
“Steel is essential for civil and defence industries. In a world of trade wars, we need to be self sufficient. We need permanent public ownership of the steel industry.”
Lords debate bill to take over British Steel after MPs vote through the government’s plan
The House of Lords is debating the government’s bill to take control of British Steel, following a rare emergency debate in parliament.
Former navy chief Lord West of Spithead said the UK production of virgin steel was vital to national security, especially the military, and backed the Government’s swift action, likening it to Cold War plans to destroy Soviet submarines.
Speaking in the Lords, the Labour former security minister said: “In the Cold War when we used to work on how we were going to kill Soviet submarines, and we would have been jolly good at it I hasten to add, I am glad we didn’t have a war but we would have been good at it, the slang word for it was ‘fastest with the mostest’.
“In other words, you got a sniff of a submarine, you moved really quickly, and I think the Government here have moved really quickly when they have seen something needs to be done, and then you put every effort, everything you had into that because you needed to kill it.
“On that issue I would say there are things that need to be done and I am not sure that all of them are being done and I do have a concern about the cost of energy.”
MPs back plans to take control of British Steel
MPs have backed the government’s plans to take control of British Steel.
Following several hours of debate in an emergency session of parliament, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle put the question to a vocal vote in the Commons, declaring: “The ayes have it.”
Former defence secretary criticises Tories for ‘selling UK steel industry to China’
China buying and then closing British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant maybe in Beijing’s interest “in a competitive world”, a Labour former defence secretary has suggested.
Backing the government’s intervention to safeguard UK steel production, Lord Reid of Cardowan hit out at Tory criticism and argued it was the previous Conservative government that had “sold this industry to the Chinese”, saying: “We are constantly told not least by the party opposite that there is no firewall between the Chinese government and Chinese industry.
“Did it never occur to anyone in the last government that it maybe, in a competitive world, in the interest of the Chinese government to purchase and then close down the British steel industry? And if that wasn’t considered then there was a gross omission of responsibility, I am afraid, by the previous government.”
