British Steel latest updates: MPs back move to take control of Scunthorpe plant in emergency debate

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.”

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.”

Everyone should worry about the cost to the taxpayer of the emergency legislation being debated in parliament, Conservative shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins has claimed.

Speaking outside parliament, she said legislation does not contain the detail needed to “safeguard jobs and to protect the steel industry”.

Ms Atkins said: “I think we should all worry about the cost on the taxpayer and this is why we have been asking how much is this going to cost, and at the moment we don’t have an answer from the government.

“How on earth can they put a piece of legislation of this importance before parliament rushing it through in less than three hours in order to safeguard jobs and livelihood?

“How can they do that without telling us, the taxpayer, what it will cost, what our future liabilities will be, what are the prospects of the private sector becoming involved again given how badly the government has handled the economy since the disastrous budget at the end of last year.”

She added: “They have not provided us with the detail we need in order to ensure that their plans will hold water and will actually do what we all want the legislation to do, which is to safeguard jobs and to protect the steel industry.”

Opposition parties have tabled eight amendments to the government’s Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill.

They include three from the SNP and Plaid Cymru extending the Bill’s scope to other parts of the UK beyond England, two from the Conservatives and one from the Liberal Democrats imposing time limits for using the powers in the Bill, and one from the UK calling for the immediate nationalisation of affected steel works.

Discussing the emergency legislation being debated in parliament, Greenpeace UK’s director of policy, Doug Parr said: “Parliament has acted in the nick of time to save British Steel and the thousands of jobs it supports.

“But much depends on what the government chooses to do with these powers. Ensuring the steel industry has a future will depend on converting the Scunthorpe plant to produce virgin green steel made with hydrogen technology. This will ensure the UK remains a contender in the global race to produce clean steel.

“It is also critical that lessons are learned from Port Talbot and that workers have a voice in future decisions about their jobs.

“The clean energy transition is an opportunity to lower bills, reduce pollution and provide decent jobs long into the future. Today’s vote is an important milestone on that road.”

A Tory MP who has campaigned to save the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe has accused the government of being slow to act on the issue.

Martin Vickers told the Commons he had first raised the issue in September last year, with another urgent question in March: “Now thankfully we’ve had a six-month reprieve from those threats which were coming forward in October, but I have to say the government have been a little dilatory on this.

“I know that negotiations have been taking place on this, and I appreciate that ministers cannot give away their negotiating position, but having made that point as long ago as September surely the government were beginning to realise that the negotiations with Jingye were going nowhere.”

He said he supported the Bill, but also the Conservative amendment that would introduce a so-called “sunset clause” on its powers. “I can assure them that I give them my full support today and will continue to do so when they act in the best interests of my constituents,” he said.

Protesters in Scunthorpe put up banners while MPs discuss an emergency bill to save British Steel plant

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper has said British Steel bills “could set a very dangerous precedent.:

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper told the Commons: “Under the terms of this Bill, the Secretary of State (Jonathan Reynolds) is giving himself huge and unconstrained powers, which could set a very dangerous precedent.

“I urge the Secretary of State in the strongest possible terms to make a simple commitment today that the powers that he is giving himself will be repealed as soon as possible, within six months at the latest, and if they are still required after that, whether he will come back to this House to ask for another vote if he wants to extend them.”

The Liberal Democrat MP said Conservative MPs’ calls for steel nationalisation “shows just how through the looking glass we really are”.

She told the Commons that recalling Parliament “is absolutely the right thing to do”, adding: “It is quite astounding that even after British Steel was sold for £1, even after British Steel entered insolvency, even after the Government’s Insolvency Service temporarily ran the firm, the Conservatives pressed ahead to erect more trade barriers through their botched Brexit deal, they scrapped the industrial strategy council, and allowed the sale of the steel plant to a Chinese firm, which now, according to ministers, is refusing to negotiate in good faith to at least keep the plant going.”

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the Government was asking MPs to sign off a “blank cheque” for its British Steel intervention.

He told the Commons: “From midnight the Chancellor will be standing behind the payroll, settling every bill with every supplier even if they are in arrears. If these decisions no longer sit with the plant’s owner, where does the buck stop? The Old Admiralty Building? The Treasury? No 10?

“And how can other steel providers have any confidence in the impartiality of the Government’s steel strategy if the umpire is now on the pitch? What assessment has the Government made of the impact of this Bill on public finances? There is no impact assessment.

“The Government has been talking to British Steel for nine months, they put at least £500 million of taxpayers’ money on the table, surely by now (Jonathan Reynolds) and his officials have a comprehensive understanding of the costs of the actions he is asking us to vote on.”

“What disrespect to this House for the Government to come along today, to recall Parliament after nine months in which they failed to land a deal and ask us for a blank cheque. This is no way to run a corner shop, let alone the country.”

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