MPs to debate emergency law that will give the business secretary the power to direct the company
The industry minister has said there would be “no extra costs” for the taxpayer as a result of taking control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe site, beyond the £2.5 billion already budgeted for supporting the industry.
Sarah Jones said:
We are hoping that the company will co-operate with what we are asking them to do, we hope that we will give them a notice and they will continue.
If they do not, we will step in. Now the company will be liable for any costs that we incur, and we will seek to get that money back.
We have the £2.5 billion fund for steel which we had in our manifesto, that we will use if necessary, so there will be no extra costs to the Exchequer that we don’t already have in our plans.
If blast furnaces are closed in an unplanned way, they can never be reopened, the steel just solidifies in those furnaces and nothing can be done.
So the choice that is facing MPs today is do we want to take back control, to give the business secretary the power to act as a company director and to instruct the company to ensure we get the raw materials and we keep the blast furnaces operating, or do we want to see the end of primary steel making in this country and the loss of jobs?
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/apr/12/british-steel-nationalisation-parliament-scunthorpe-jingye-keir-starmer-latest-news-updates
Author : Hamish Mackay
Publish date : 2025-04-12 07:42:00
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