UK Steel Industry

Anna Turley Excerpts

Monday 29th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but he should also accept that if the entire debate on trade and trade protection in the EU becomes about the lesser duty rule, it will take away from the time and effort required to use the existing rules more effectively.

[Anna Turley (Redcar) (Lab/Co-op)]

If Tata Steel, UK Steel—the umbrella body—and the Community union are all calling for the Government to take action on the lesser duty rule, surely the Secretary of State can see that it is in his gift to give that to the steel industry, which is crying out in desperation for his help.

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady will know that that is not in the gift of any single Government in the EU; the issue is EU-wide. As I have explained, it is important to use the existing rules effectively, and we support taking further action where the tariffs are not imposed quickly or if they are not high enough.

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[Anna Turley]

I appreciate what the Secretary of State has said about levelling the playing field; that is all the Opposition ask for. I want to take him back to the point about the lesser duty rule. The European Commission states that the dumping margin for rebar is 66%, but the lesser duty rule puts it at 9%. That has a huge impact. The Minister must acknowledge that 66% levels the playing field.

[Sajid Javid]

I know the hon. Lady feels passionately about the matter, but it is important to get the facts right. On rebar, the European Commission has so far come up with tariffs of between 9% and 13%. The industry is asking for 20% to 30%, and we support that. I hope she will also support that.

The fifth and final ask was lower business rates. A Treasury review of those is ongoing, and I hope that it will be concluded ahead of next month’s Budget.

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[Huw Merriman]

I accept that point. This issue extends to the whole of the UK, including the constituency that I serve.

The steel industry has experienced challenges that are, as the Financial Times put it recently, akin to a perfect storm. First, since 2000, there has been massive growth in the volume of steel that is produced internationally, particularly by China. Secondly, the recent slowing of global growth, particularly in China, has meant that steel production has outstripped consumption. Thirdly, the surplus steel has been exported, again largely from China, which has pushed the price down for British producers. There is a similar theme in other sectors, such as our oil industry. Accordingly, British steel is being sold at a much reduced price, and because British industry has higher overheads, that has hit our steel industry hard.

That leads us to the question of what the Government can do in the face of global market events. I am pleased that they have voiced their support for the industry and are already working on the action requested in the motion in the following ways. First, they are pressing with some success, as we have heard today, for more vigorous anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures across the EU to prevent Chinese firms from selling steel at sub-market rates across Europe.

Secondly, the Government are taking the lead in public procurement to ensure that, where possible within EU state aid rules, the Government buy British steel. To that end, I was pleased to hear the Secretary of State mention that public procurement contracts can take into consideration not just the specific costs but the wider socioeconomic benefits of buying British steel.

Thirdly, the Government are encouraging British private industry, such as our burgeoning auto trade, to buy British. Fourthly, they are assessing the tax and regulatory costs and what the industry can do to drive up its competitiveness. The Government have taken a lead in doing that with the industry.

Finally, the Government are driving discussions in the European Council on taking similar action at EU level, as the EU is the second largest producer of steel globally, albeit at about 25% of total Chinese production. I hope that those levers, which the Government and industry are pulling, will reach fruition and assist our steel producers and those who work in the industry.

I would like to respond to some of the points that have emanated from the Opposition Benches. I fully understand why they have been made but, being a Government Member, it would be remiss of me not to comment on them. It is not realistic for the Government to step in and effectively underpin the steel price by pumping money into the industry, for two obvious reasons. First, EU state aid rules mean that the UK is largely prohibited from providing financial assistance that could distort prices between producers within the EU.

[Anna Turley]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Huw Merriman]

I will not, because I am coming to a conclusion.

Secondly, at a time when our health service is having to find £22 billion of efficiencies in addition to the £10 billion that the Government are pumping in, we have difficult choices to make on behalf of the country about where Government spending goes.

I welcome the many initiatives that the Government have launched, which meet many of the requests in the motion. I hope that they will support our steel industry through this time of market turbulence.

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[Anna Turley (Redcar) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, but I am afraid that I contribute to debates on steel with a heavy heart and a bitter taste in my mouth. I led such debates back in September to plead with the Government to intervene and to save the steel works in Redcar, but I now stand in the Chamber to represent over 3,000 people who have lost their livelihoods and their identity, and to represent a barren, silent industrial giant of a blast furnace, which still dominates the skyline of Redcar and is a visible daily reminder of this Government’s abandonment. I stand here to represent a community that feels let down, cheated and bereft. It is a tragedy that, despite representing a constituency that forged the steel that built the bridges and skyscrapers of the world in the 20th century, I stand here now, in a debate about British steelmaking, to represent a constituency that no longer makes steel. However, I am here because I owe it to my constituents, and those who fought so hard and with such dignity for our own steelworks.

I and my Labour colleagues will keep battling and fighting for steelworkers throughout the country and for the future of this vital industry. At this point, I want to pay tribute to others who are fighting so hard to save our steel—the steelworkers who have taken their campaigns to Brussels and around this country, and particularly the Community union and the Daily Mirror newspaper for their fantastic campaigns. We have to keep fighting to ensure that Britain is a country that still makes things; to make sure that our homes, our ships, our railways and our submarines are built with British steel; and to make sure that our industrial engineers have jobs and that our young people have a future where they make something more meaningful than a latte or a Subway sandwich.

Steelmaking would be an industry with a future if only it had a Government that believed in it. Steel is integral to the long-term success of our advanced manufacturing, particularly in relation to the automotive, aerospace and rail sectors and to our sovereign capability in the defence and nuclear industries. Steelmaking can be competitive in this country, and we on Teesside can still play a role. We just need the Government to take action. Teesside still has the potential to be a hub for developing new technologies, and to lead the way in the circular economy—re-engineering waste, recycling and energy recovery. Where once we may have produced carbon, now we can capture and store it or even reuse it. Where once we forged steel, we may yet be able to recycle it with electro-arc furnaces. We just need a Government who believe in us.

That is why I will continue to press the Minister—I hope that she will, in turn, press Innovate UK and, ahead of the Budget, the Chancellor—for the establishment of a materials catapult for research and innovation on Teesside, focusing on the early stage of metals development.

[Jim McMahon]

Does my hon. Friend share my concern that the Chancellor seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time speaking to the Chinese about investment to fund the northern powerhouse investment pitch book—of course, to appeal to parts of the UK that other potential Conservative leadership candidates cannot possibly reach—than supporting our own industry? Will she join me in warning Conservative Members that if our industry dies, Britain dies too?

[Anna Turley]

My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. There is no greater testament to the lack of progress of the northern powerhouse so far than the devastating loss of steelmaking on Teesside. If the northern powerhouse means anything at all, it means jobs, industry and growth on Teesside, and on that count the Government have failed.

With the materials catapult for Teesside—the existing research and development hub, which is the materials processing industry in my constituency—the Government have the perfect opportunity to put right some of their wrongs and to help some kind of steel phoenix to rise from the ashes in Teesside. Teesside can build on its industrial strength and once more play a vital role in driving the UK’s industrial and high-tech economy of the future.

But we need a Government that will support us, a Government that will commit to an industrial strategy and a Government that, dare I say it, will invest. What we do not need are a Government that fail to play their role on the global stage, but that is what we have seen. The Chancellor has been out in China, and I can only imagine how grateful it is to him that his Government have actively blocked our European colleagues’ efforts to increase tariffs on Chinese steel in the EU by scrapping the lesser duty rule. I can only imagine how grateful it is to him that his Government are such cheerleaders for China in seeking market economy status, which would give the green light to Chinese steel flooding in. President Obama has pledged aggressive action through the trade Bill in Congress, and the US recently imposed duties of 236% on a particular grade of Chinese steel.

I, for one, am fed up with the Government and Government Members pretending that membership of the EU is the reason they cannot act. Instead, I want them to work with our European partners to impose tariffs and tackle dumping. I am frankly embarrassed that it is the UK that is leading a small group of nations in opposing higher tariffs on China because of the Tories’ ideological obsession with a market economy that sees jobs, communities and entire industries as a price worth paying for their kind of laissez-faire, unfettered global market.

[The Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise (Anna Soubry)]

You know that’s not true.

[Anna Turley]

We have heard it from the Government Benches tonight.

We will keep fighting and holding the Government’s feet to the fire. No more job losses, no more closures—we need the Government to act. We want the Government to stand up for Britain. We want the Government to save our steel.