Ministers scramble to keep Scunthorpe steelworks running – UK politics live

Minister ‘confident’ that materials will arrive to keep Scunthorpe blast furnaces running

James Murray, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, has said government officials are continuing to try to get raw materials to the Scunthorpe steelworks to keep the blast furnaces there running, insisting that the supplies are in the country and he is ‘“confident” they will arrive.

Speaking to Times Radio this morning, he said government staff had been at the furnace and “Their role is to make sure we do everything we can to make sure we get those raw materials to the blast furnaces in time and to make sure they continue operating.

“The raw materials, the shipments have arrived, they’re in the UK, they’re nearby. There were questions about getting them into the blast furnaces, that is what the officials are focused on right now.”

Speaking later on the Today programme, Murray said:

I’m confident in our actions. I’m confident we’re doing everything we can to get the raw materials in there, to keep the blast furnaces going.

And the reason we need to keep going … is to give us the opportunity to make sure that steel making in the UK has a bright future. Because ultimately, we want to bring in another private sector partner to give it a sustainable future in the UK.

The MP for Ealing North was coy when pressed by Nick Robinson on the staus of raw materials, saying “We’re very clear that we want to get the raw materials in. There are limits on what I can say because of the commercial processes that are under way.”

Robinson suggested the government was concerned about suppliers potentially hiking prices if they knew how precarious the operation of the plant was.

Key events

Two areas where the Conservatives have been criticising Labour’s handling of the British Steel crisis are over the cost of energy for industry in the UK and the government’s general taxation policy toward businesses.

Appearing on GB News, shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin said:

[Energy prices are] a really important issue. I’m very disappointed that this government has, for example, got rid of some of the new production of our oil and gas and I think there needs to be a rethink on this front.

I also think that in terms of the costs that this government has put on, for example, steel production, but also business right across this country; the fact that they’ve increased national insurance on everyone, they’ve increased business rates on this plant at Scunthorpe.

It just shows that they’re not backing business, that what we’ve got here is actually a government by the unions, of the unions and for the unions.

Another opposition frontbencher, Andrew Griffith, the shadow secretary of state for business and trade, has also joined in. On social media he has responded to a quote suggesting Keir Starmer would protect jobs and businesses by posting “And yet Ed Miliband is still serving in his cabinet …” in a reference to net zero policies.

Treasury minister James Murray was also pressed on this during his interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Presenter Nick Robinson said to him that the country has high energy costs because “successive governments have insisted on what you call green energy, driving those prices up and make it unsustainable to produce steel, whereas China, they don’t have that problem. They kept their coalmines open. They continue to produce power from coal, as they do in India as well. And what we do is buy other people’s coal, buy other people’s steel, which isn’t helping the planet at all.”

Murray responded by saying “We need to make sure that the future of steel making in the UK is sustainable, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing down energy costs for businesses.”

He claimed the government had planned an investment of £5bn over ten years “to help the energy intensive industries with the high cost of energy.”

He said “making sure that we have energy independence and energy security here in the UK is critical for businesses and for households, to bring down bills.”

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, has spoken to PA Media about his understanding of the situation, telling the news agency he was “hopeful” that the materials needed to keep furnaces at the Scunthorpe steel plant burning will be delivered in the next 48 hours.

He said:

Where we are at the moment is that we’re confident that the deal being done with the raw materials, and the steps being taken will get there on time, and ultimately that has the potential to preserve the future for the plant.

There still needs to be a deal to be done for the future. Whether that’s our preference – which is nationalisation of what is a key national asset – or whether that’s a genuine private investor who’s willing to come in and put the money.

I think for us the key thing is that we keep this plant going and keep virgin steel-making capacity in the UK.

We’re being told it’s going to come in good time, so we’re hopeful that it’s the next 48 hours but we haven’t had confirmation of that. However, we believe the steps taken would be meaningless if there weren’t the logistics in place to get it to the plant on time.

As a reminder, the plant, which is the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel in England, needs raw materials within the next fortnight, including iron pellets and coking coal, or else it faces the prospect of the furnaces cooling to a point where it is neither easy nor cost-effective to bring them back.

Treasury minister James Murray has criticised previous Conservative governments for their approaches to relations with China, saying that the current Labour administration needed to be “cool-headed, clear-eyed and pragmatic” in its dealings with the country, as there were significant economic implications.

Asked outright on LBC radio if, in the wake of the British Steel crisis, the government should be treating China as a hostile state akin to Russia or Iran, Murray said “No. China is not a hostile state.”

He continued, telling listeners:

China is a country with whom we have a large important relationship. We need to be pragmatic about it and understand that we have different ways of interacting with China in different areas of our relationship.

China is the second-biggest economy in the world, fourth-biggest trading partner for the UK, and there are 450,000 jobs in Britain that depend on exports to China, so we need to engage with them.

But I think if you look at what’s happened in recent years under the previous governments it either arguably was too naive and too “not eyes open” under Cameron and Osborne, and more recently in the latter days of the previous government, there was no engagement at all.

And I think neither of those are quite the right approach. We need to be cool-headed and clear-eyed and pragmatic about this, and realise there areas where we’re going to cooperate, some where we’re going to compete and others where we’ll challenge.

Also on the morning media round today was shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin, who endured a torrid time on Sky News while being repeatedly pressed to acknowledge any culpability for the British Steel crisis by the previous Conservative administration that sold the company to current Chinese owners Jingye in 2019.

The MP for West Worcestershire was told the appearance was “a wonderful opportunity for you here right now, with our viewers on Sky News, to say, look, it was a mistake. We understand that, and we support the government. Do you want to do that this morning?”

Baldwin replied:

Well, I think that, you know, I know that it was looked at very rigorously at the time. It was welcomed by the unions. And I think we need to recognise that 2025 is very different from 2019. And we need to focus on the future of this critical national infrastructure in this industry in our country.

Asked if the opposition would back full nationalisation of the plant in Scunthorpe if the alternative was for it to go completely under, Baldwin said:

I think it’s always got to be a last resort. But, you know, there was a period when the government owned it, before Jingye came in, and so I think you should never have anything off the table, but I think that does need to be a last resort.

When it was again pointed out that the Conservatives did the deal to sell the business to Jingye, Baldwin said:

It was a deal that was welcomed by the unions and local communities at the time. So can we put that in the past and focus on the future of this critical industry.

She accused the Labour government of “scrambling at the last minute, scrambling to recall parliament, and scrambling to run a steel company now,” claiming “that shows that this is a failure of negotiation by the current government.”

Baldwin was then asked “Is this a wider problem of privatisation for the Conservatives. You know, we look at Thames Water and what’s happening here. This is a failure of 14 years of Conservative rule, isn’t it not?”

The MP replied:

I think there’s a general consensus. If you hear the chancellor today talking about investment in our infrastructure, she’s always looking for partnerships with private equity capital. She’s looking for your pension and my pension to be investing in some of these infrastructure.

I think there is always going to be a role for private capital in all of these organisations. And I think it means that there’s less competition in terms of financing for the schools, for the hospitals, which do require exclusive public funding.

So yes, I think there’s always going to be a role for private investment, and I think that’s an argument that’s already been won.

The UK government’s intervention to try to keep the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe running has drawn some criticism from the SNP, who have attempted to compare it unfavourably with the treatment of the potential closure of Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn challenged business secretary Jonathan Reynolds over it in parliament in London on Saturday.

Labour’s Midlothian MP, Kirsty McNeill, who also acts as parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland, commented on the row while appearing on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme.

Claiming that the previous Conservative administration in Westminster and the Scottish government had “no industrial strategy to speak of”, she told listeners:

These situations are different, which is why this interventionist UK government has an industrial strategy that matches solutions to the problems at hand.

I would contrast the speed with which they [the SNP] can take to social media and take to the airwaves to air their grievances and the speed at which they move to secure Scottish jobs.

In the end, they’re having a conversation about Grangemouth today because they’re manufacturing a grievance. We, by contrast have taken serious action from the minute we got in.

Peter Walker

Peter Walker is a senior political correspondent at the Guardian

A Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.

Wera Hobhouse, who was turned back by officials on Thursday, said she was given no explanation as to why this happened, and could only assume that it was because she had spoken out about rights abuses by China.

Hobhouse told Sky News that after she and her husband arrived, he was quickly given permission to stay but that she was asked to step aside. The couple’s son, a university academic, lives in Hong Kong, and they hoped to see their three-month-old grandson.

“And at the end of about three hours, my husband was told he was free to go but I was denied entry, and I was going to go back on the next plane home,” Hobhouse said.

The Bath MP said that while she tried to be “cooperative and friendly” in the expectation she would eventually be allowed in, on being told she could not, she “slightly lost it” and demanded an explanation, but was told only, “We are so sorry, Madam, we understand.”

She said: “No explanation was given to me, ever. And this is what is so chilling, and should really be a wake-up call for any parliamentarian, because I had no warning that I was on the blacklist.”

Read more of Peter Walker’s report here: UK MP refused entry to Hong Kong accuses China of ‘hidden blacklist’

Nimo Omer

Our First Edition newsletter today also has its focus on the crisis at British Steel. Here is my colleague Nimo Omer outlining where we are:

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds now holds emergency powers that enable him to compel the company to buy the raw materials it needs, with the government covering the running costs, which Jingye estimates at approximately £700,000 per day in losses.

A failure to order enough coal and iron has resulted in a shortage of vital raw materials that the plant needs imminently to remain operational. Without them, the furnaces would shut down, making closure all the more likely. Reynolds has however refused to say whether British Steel will be able to get the raw materials it needs in time.

The running costs are set to make a significant dent in the government’s £2.5bn steel fund. Reynolds said that the cost to the economy of closing the plant would have been at least £1bn, a figure he said would exceed the losses anticipated from nationalising the site.

The business secretary did not accuse Jingye of deliberately sabotaging the plant, though he did say that “it might be neglect”. The government does not expect Jingye to re-enter negotiations but Reynolds added that recent events had raised a “high trust bar” for Chinese firms seeking to invest in key British industries.

Increasing volatility in global markets, particularly in light of the Trump administration’s stance on European security and trade tariffs, has perhaps also put pressure on the government to keep the British steel industry afloat.

You can read more from Nimo Omer here: Monday briefing – is nationalisation the answer to the British Steel crisis?

Another union official, Roy Rickhuss, who has been general secretary of the Community Union since 2013, also appeared during the media round today, talking about the government’s efforts to keep the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe in operation. He told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:

The Chinese owners Jingye, unfortunately, were seen to be working against the business, if that’s fair to say. They weren’t ordering raw materials. Not only that, but they were refusing to pay for raw materials, and they were actually turning away raw materials and trying to transfer them elsewhere.

I think Jingye had a plan. The plan was to close the blast furnaces and they were going to import steel from China to run through our mills, and British Steel would have become what we call a re-rolling facility.

British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe employs about 2,700 people, and is the only remaining plant in the UK capable of producing the virgin steel required in major construction projects.

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer for the GMB union, has said she has been “wholly reassured” that raw materials are set to arrive at the Scunthorpe blast furnaces to ensure their continued operation.

Speaking on the BBC Breakfast programme, PA Media reports she told viewers:

I spoke to British Steel late yesterday evening and was wholly reassured, actually. I’m told that the coke that’s at Immingham Bulk Terminal will be paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days and that Government are working at pace to secure the rest of the raw materials that are currently on the ocean.

Government minister James Murray has defended the government’s decision to use taxpayer’s money to bail out the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe rather than using the money elsewhere.

In an exchange on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme where the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury was asked if the money wouldn’t be better diverted to public services, he told listeners:

If we want to build hospitals, we need steel. If we want to build 1.5m homes, we need steel. If we want to expand Heathrow, we need steel.

Steel is a really critical part of our plan for change, as well as our national security. We want to support steel making here in the UK, and that’s why we’ve intervened

We need to make sure that the future of steel making in the UK is sustainable, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing down energy costs for businesses.

A government minister has said that the owners of British Steel had “clearly behaved irresponsibly” but there was no wider lesson to be drawn about the involvement of Chinese firms in critical infrastructure in the UK.

James Murray, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said of Jingye on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that:

The company we’re talking about here, in relation to Scunthorpe, has clearly behaved irresponsibly. It became apparent in recent days that they were accelerating the closure of the blast furnaces. That’s why we had to act quickly to get the legislation in place.

But one company doesn’t speak to all companies who are based in China. And you know, we need to make clear that we are open for that investment from around the world.

After a similar line of questioning on Times Radio earlier, Murray had said “we need to be clear that we have an approach where we encourage investment from around the world, and are open to that investment and free trade, but at the same time having these very clear principles of saying when there is foreign involvement in critical infrastructure, they will receive the highest scrutiny.”