Blast furnaces have been making steel in Britain for 300 years, ever since they helped start the Industrial Revolution. This weekend, parliament will sit for the first Saturday in decades as it tries to keep the last two furnaces running for a bit longer.
Keir Starmer has recalled MPs to discuss emergency powers to direct steel companies, including British Steel’s Scunthorpe steelworks, to “preserve capability and ensure public safety”. The move would be short of nationalisation, but it would give the government more influence on the steel industry than at any point since Margaret Thatcher.
The government is scrambling to save Scunthorpe after its Chinese owner, Jingye Steel Group, last month said it was considering closing it, with the likely loss of 2,700 jobs. Starmer and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, hope to keep the plant running for the next few weeks while they work out the longer-term plan, with nationalisation one option.
British Steel is facing a crisis within a crisis: in the short term – the next week or so – it needs materials, including iron pellets and coking coal, or else it faces the prospect of the furnaces cooling beyond easy or affordable recovery. Customers would flee, making job losses inevitable.
People with knowledge of this week’s talks between the UK government and Jingye said it appeared that the government had run out of patience with the Chinese company’s negotiating. The government had offered to buy the raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running in the short term but that offer was not taken up. Parliament may be able to avert the short-term crisis on Saturday.
more to follow….
