Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill

Lord Murphy of Torfaen Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Lab)]

I begin by congratulating my noble friend Lord Leong on his debut in this debate. It was a very good one as well, and we look forward to similar contributions in the future. I welcome the Bill. I welcome it because, first, there has been almost unanimity in this debate from your Lordships regarding the significance of steel and the importance of having steel as a critical and vital part of our economy. That is a very important starter. How we do it, I suspect, will be the cause of lots of debates in Committee and on Report. But it is vital to our construction, to our defence and to our engineering. It is vital because of the uncertain world that we now live in: a world of tariffs and wars and presidents who are unpredictable and dictators all around the world. As we debate this, the G7 is meeting meet in Evian, and each of the countries around the table has its own steel industry.

It is also vital—this has not been touched on too much in this debate—for the communities around the steel industry. You would expect a Welshman to refer to the Welsh steel industry as part of our life in Wales. It is in our blood. I come from a family of miners and steelworkers. I represented a constituency in the other place that was a steel-making constituency. In Blaenavon, the Gilchrist-Thomas process was invented, which transformed steel-making in the 19th century. I had in the constituency a stainless steel works, which for generations was hugely important to our communities. As an aside, before I entered politics, I taught in a college in Ebbw Vale at the time when the steelworks was almost completely closed. The impact of that closure on a one-industry town was devastating. That is why, in terms of British Steel and Scunthorpe, it is about the significance not simply of keeping our steel industry but of ensuring that our communities are healthy and intact.

I point out to the House that we are only talking about approximately half of steel-making coming from British Steel. The other half comes from Wales, from an industry which is not nationalised. The great Port Talbot steelworks, which is now changing over from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces, is where the whole of the steel-making capacity of Tata in Wales is produced. It is interesting that this 50% of steel-making is not nationalised. It is a working partnership between, on the one hand, the Government—by which I mean two Governments, the Government in Cardiff and the Government here in Westminster—and the company itself. The deal, which was struck only days before the general election, meant that approximately £1.3 billion was to be invested in Port Talbot: £500 million of that came from the then Conservative Government. This Government have honoured it and indeed have gone further by giving about £120 million to retraining and by ensuring that procurement rules have changed, so that British companies must use British steel. To that end, 5,000 jobs are to be maintained in Port Talbot. So, as welcome as this Bill is, we must see it in context. It is only part of the picture: only half of it.

The questions I would like to ask the Minister concern Port Talbot, which this month suffered a severe fire on its site and is facing some difficulties with that. Also, there are hugely important problems with the supply of electricity—and I very much take the points that have been made regarding the cost of electricity. We cannot ignore it as a Labour Government. We must look at it very seriously. Secondly, there are planning issues which have been faced by the company in Port Talbot. These I would have thought can be overcome if my noble friend liaised with the Secretary for Wales and with the new Welsh Government.

At the end of the day, all of us understand that we cannot be without a British steel industry. Nothing is going to be easy with regard to this. There is no easy solution to it. But this is at least a start. It is the right thing to do and it is the British thing to do.