Key points
- Scunthorpe plant employs 2,700 people
- Emergency powers used to prevent blast furnaces’ closure
- Parliament approved the law without any opposition
ISLAMABAD: The UK government is taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel after emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament in a single day.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs the government’s likely next step would be to nationalise the Scunthorpe plant, which employs 2,700 people, according to BBC.
But he said he was forced to seek emergency powers to prevent owners Jingye shutting down its two blast furnaces, which would have ended primary steel production in the UK.
The struggling plant in northern England had faced imminent closure and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government “stepped in to save British Steel” with legislation to prevent its blast furnaces going out.
Rare weekend session
At a rare weekend session, parliament approved the law without opposition to take over the running of the Scunthorpe site, which employs several thousand people and produces steel crucial for UK industries including construction and rail transport, AFP reported.
The government saw its possible closure as a risk to Britain’s long-term economic security, given the decline of the UK’s once robust steel industry.
Officials were poised to take over the site after the emergency bill passed into law on Saturday evening, according to UK media reports.
Following its approval Starmer said his administration was “turning the page on a decade of decline” and “acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers.”
He insisted “all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry,” after a government minister indicated nationalisation could be a likely next step.
In national interest
Earlier, as MPs debated in parliament, the prime minister made a dash to the region where he told steelworkers gathered in a nearby village hall that the measure was “in the national interest”.
He said the “pretty unprecedented” move meant the government could secure “a future for steel” in Britain.
“The most important thing is we’ve got control of the site, we can make the decisions about what happens, and that means that those blast furnaces will stay on,” he said.
It came after protests at the plant and reports that workers had stopped executives from the company’s Chinese owners Jingye accessing key areas of the steelworks on Saturday morning.
Trump tariffs
MPs had left for their Easter holidays on Tuesday and had not been due to return to parliament until April 22 when the rare session was called.
MPs last sat on a Saturday recall of parliament at the start of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982.
Scunthorpe in northern England hosts Britain’s last virgin steel plant — which produces steel from raw rather than recycled materials — after Indian firm Tata’s Port Talbot site shuttered its blast furnace last year.
British Steel has said US President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on the sector were partly to blame for the Scunthorpe plant’s difficulties.
However, fierce competition from cheaper Asian steel has heaped pressure on Europe’s beleaguered industry in recent years.
