British Steel

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

We need steel for wind turbines, for the equipment for carbon capture and for the expansion of grid infrastructure. In short, it is an essential part of how we expand our energy security in this country. The Prime Minister told the Liaison Committee that the grid connection date for Scunthorpe was 2034. Can my hon. Friend confirm that, as a crucial element of the modernisation agenda and securing the long-term future of Scunthorpe and steelmaking, which is so important to energy and every other part of our economy, she and her colleagues are looking at how that grid connection can be brought forward?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank the Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee for his important question. He makes the point that we need steel for green energy—wind turbines, carbon capture and so on—and our energy security. There is an important wider point, which is that since the election, £43.7 billion has been committed by the private sector to invest in clean energy in this country. Those on the Opposition Benches who are questioning net zero are putting at risk thousands of jobs that we will see delivered through clean energy. We have to be very careful what we wish for, because that investment is incredibly important for our country. The green energy sector is growing 10% faster than the rest of the economy. These are important things and important jobs.

My hon. Friend makes a really sensible point about grid connection. We have not just seen this at Scunthorpe; we have seen it with many different companies, where grid connections being 15 or even 20 years away makes investment completely unviable. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero announced last week how we are reforming the grid queue, getting rid of zombie projects and ensuring that we prioritise what is important. We will ensure we are doing everything we can to improve that connection at Scunthorpe.

Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

Bill Esterson Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith]

I will take an intervention if someone wants to answer this question: has anyone in Government asked the ONS whether, as a result of the powers that are being taken in this Bill, from today British Steel will be classified as publicly owned, whether it has been formally nationalised or not? No answers.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

rose—

[Andrew Griffith]

That is a bit slow. [Interruption.] Go on then.

[Bill Esterson]

That is a relevant question, given that the hon. Gentleman was Boris Johnson’s business adviser when the Jingye deal was being negotiated. What advice did he give Boris Johnson about whether to accept that deal?

[Andrew Griffith]

Disappointingly, there was no answer to my important question about the ONS and whether this asset will sit on the Government’s balance sheet. Perhaps when the Minister winds up, he will provide an answer to that important question that affects the nation’s finances.

The markets know, the world knows and we know that the Chancellor’s headroom was inadequate from the very moment that she sat down after her last emergency Budget. Only this week, the Bank of England took the unprecedented step of cancelling the planned sale of Government bonds. Today’s botched nationalisation will further unsettle international markets. When will the Chancellor be presenting her next emergency Budget, and what are her plans to update the markets?

There we are: a disrespect of this House; the Government treating Parliament with disdain; nine months of dither and delay; and a botched nationalisation of steelmaking, with the British taxpayer on the hook. It is crystal clear that when Labour negotiates, Britain loses. This is not a serious Government. It is a Government shaped by events, not in control of them. It is government by sulky teenager—not sharing their plans, not answering the question, and when it goes wrong, it is everyone’s fault but theirs.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Well, thank you, Mr Speaker—no pressure. [Interruption.] I will put some of my papers down.

May I start by praising the Business Secretary and his team for the way in which they have introduced the legislation? I add to that my praise for trade unions, local management and Members of Parliament of both main parties—not least my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Sir Nicholas Dakin), who, being a Minister, is not speaking in the debate. I joined him on a 2023 visit to Scunthorpe, where the very concerns about Jingye that we have heard today were shared with us by local management and trade unions alike. It is no surprise that those concerns have come to pass.

The last Government were warned, and they chose not to take the action needed. Ministers in the last Government told me that steel needed by the Navy and by those across our economy could not be made at Scunthorpe, or at other steel plants. Interestingly, the local management and the trade unions told me that they could make whatever their customers asked them to make by adjusting production. Again, it is a pity that the last Government did not listen, or we might be in a rather different place now. During the last Parliament, we were the only country in the G20 where production of primary steel, and steel overall, was falling. If the blast furnaces were allowed to close, we would be the only country in the G20 without any primary steelmaking capacity, which underlines why today’s legislation is so important.

The steel at Scunthorpe is of strategic national importance. Some 95% of our rail tracks are made at Scunthorpe, and the steelworks there carry out automotive, construction and defence production, all of which are critically important to this country. In addition to what is made now, there are opportunities in energy transition and defence. Some 25 million tonnes of steel will be required over the next 25 years in the offshore wind sector alone, so there are great opportunities if we can secure the future of Scunthorpe.

At the Liaison Committee last Tuesday, the Prime Minister mentioned that the grid connection plan for the Scunthorpe site is only due in 2034. Our electricity prices are 46% above the average for International Energy Agency states. The Government have to address the challenges of slow grid connections and uncompetitive industrial energy prices if they are to enable the modernisation of industry as a whole, and steel in particular.

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

The Business and Trade Committee, of which I am a member, has heard evidence about the importance of the steel industry, and about the need for primary steelmaking to be retained as a key pillar of UK industrial sovereignty. We have heard that blast furnaces still play a critical role in strategic and high-grade steel production. Does my hon. Friend agree that our economic security is intrinsically linked with our onshore industrial capabilities, and that our Government’s focus on both construction and defence in these uncertain times means that this Bill is very welcome news?

[Bill Esterson]

My hon. Friend makes extremely well the point that our economic security and our national security are two sides of the same coin. I am pleased to hear about the work being done by the Business and Trade Committee; in his excellent speech, the Committee’s Chair, my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne), mentioned the Sub-Committee that has been set up.

I want to talk about Port Talbot, because the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee visited it two weeks ago. There will be a delay of several years between the closure last year of the blast furnaces there, and the opening of the new electric arc furnace, which is a massive cause for concern in south Wales and beyond. The excellent financial support provided by this Government, and Tata’s willingness to engage, are a good example of industry and Government being partners, and an indication that the industrial strategy that the Government plan to bring forward is already being effective.

The Bill gives the Government the opportunity to secure steelmaking in this country. I congratulate the Secretary of State and his colleagues on their decisive action. Workers and the nation as a whole are grateful for the work of this Government, who are doing absolutely the right thing.

Scunthorpe Steelworks

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Hon. Members]

You’re not!

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

It is a shame that the Conservative Members who were heckling the Minister have forgotten their own Government’s failure to tackle the problems of high industrial energy prices. [Interruption.] They can heckle again now, but they did nothing in government.

Two weeks ago, I was at the Tata steelworks with the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee. We spoke to people locally, who had great concerns that when the blast furnaces there shut—it was too late for this Government to take action to prevent that when they came in—it was some years before the new electric arc furnace technology was ready to be installed and to operate.

Will my hon. Friend do everything in her power to ensure that there is not that same gap here? The problem that has caused in south Wales has reminded people of the damage done by previous eras of deindustrialisation, and they are concerned that we are now repeating the same mistakes. Will she confirm that the Government will do everything in their power to ensure that we do not make those same mistakes of deindustrialisation this time?

[Sarah Jones]

We are very much planning not to make the mistakes that my hon. Friend talked about. We do not want the blast furnaces to shut—that remains the Government’s view—and we will do everything we can to reach a deal with British Steel to protect workers and secure those jobs and the production of steel in the long term.

UK-US Trade and Tariffs

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

The hon. Lady is incorrect, and I must ask her to take a bit more of a serious tone in the questions that she brings to the House. This is really serious stuff. I have met my counterparts on many occasions, and we were in contact even before some of the formal procedures on the US side were confirmed. It was not technically possible to have been in touch with them sooner. Their engagement has been consistent and serious. She is incorrect, and I ask her to please approach these important proceedings with a bit more seriousness.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The US tariffs have serious implications for UK industry. They are a reminder of the importance of the industrial strategy and Government support, including for domestic steel- making capability, which, sadly, the Conservative party neglected badly over 14 years. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he is fully committed to the plan for steel, and confirm the importance of our sovereign steelmaking capacity?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question, and for the work that he did, alongside me, in this area over many years in opposition. He knows the commitment of the Government and Government Members to the steel industry. Of all the issues of industrial neglect that we were bequeathed, those are some of the harder ones to resolve; there is no doubt about that. He knows that our ambition is strong, whether we are talking about the future of British Steel at Scunthorpe and Teesside, or, in terms of sovereign capability, our aspirations under the steel strategy for new investments and new technology. The issues are difficult—particularly this week; I know that all the workers at Scunthorpe are concerned—but the Government’s commitment to and work on the steel sector will go on.

North Sea Energy

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Minister was right to remind us that the North sea is a mature basin, she was right to remind us that 70,000 jobs have been lost there in the last 10 years, and she was right to praise the highly skilled engineers who have made such a contribution in the North sea and to the country. She mentioned the skills passport, and said that the Government were making progress with the industry in finding alternatives in the jobs transition. The Select Committee has heard, a number of times, evidence that one of the challenges is the fact that pay in the North sea is significantly higher than pay in equivalent jobs in the renewable sector, and offshore wind in particular. What, at this stage, are the Minister�s thoughts on how we can make pay more attractive for workers moving from oil and gas into renewables?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for his work on the Select Committee, which is very important. As he knows, for a long time we have been a bit stuck in trying to set up a passport system because of the slightly different skills and qualifications in each industry and the need to bring them together. The Government became involved to try to ensure that we could bridge that gap and enable people to make the transition. Oil and gas workers are highly skilled and greatly in demand, and, as my hon. Friend says, they are paid a good wage. We need to work with the new offshore wind companies; we like to see union recognition, and we like to see good salaries for people doing those jobs as well. There will be other jobs that people can go into. The plan is to help people make the transition rather than leaving them adrift as the last Government did.

Stellantis Luton

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I genuinely appreciate the question coming from that perspective, but this is not just about NGOs. We have been in close contact with big business about charging infrastructure, and I understand the importance of that. I want to make it clear that that is why we are not undermining transition, but are ambitious with the industry about where we will get to. Nothing we propose as a Government will itself reduce or limit the deployment of electric vehicles. What I am talking about, and what we are talking about as a Government, is looking at how, for instance, the flexibilities in the system operate. We are doing everything we can, alongside industry, to get to that destination.

I want nothing to do with the approach of the previous Government, which had a really detrimental effect on the industry, as it will tell any hon. Member very clearly. I am listening to what it means to have this change in economic circumstances in relation to private demand for electric vehicles, and I want to work with industry to get to the place or the destination that I think we both strongly support.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The previous Government were warned before the election, including multiple times in this Chamber, about the damage they were doing to the car industry. The constant changes of policy on net zero, missing targets on the roll-out of charge points and the failure to even allocate the rapid charging fund have all undermined consumer confidence. Will my right hon. Friend make sure that, as soon as possible after his review, he balances the needs of manufacturers of cars and vans with the needs of consumers?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I believe my hon. Friend’s analysis is absolutely right, and he and I were in the Chamber on several occasions when that case was made to the previous Government. The intervention from the former Prime Minister was not based on any kind of business or economic logic, but was an attempt to create some sort of wedge issue before the election. Frankly, that did them absolutely no good, because people saw straight through it. I say again that to change the deadline, but keep the existing thresholds in place up until 2030 was the worst of all worlds—it really did have a negative impact on consumer confidence—and we will never repeat those mistakes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas]

I say very gently to the hon. Gentleman that if he and his party are determined to oppose the measures we took in the Budget, including on employers’ national insurance contributions, they need to set out how they would fund the extra investment in the NHS, the investment in the automotive and aerospace sectors, and the measures to protect and raise living standards.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

8. What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the outcomes of the international investment summit.

[The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)]

We held, as we have said, an international investment summit on 14 October, 100 days after we formed the new Government. We secured £63 billion of investment, which is twice the level of the previous Government’s investment summit. The investment will create high-quality, high-skilled, well-paid jobs across the country, and represents a huge vote of confidence in this new Government.

[Bill Esterson]

As my hon. Friend quite rightly said, the Labour party is now the party of business without any question. Does she agree that the measures committed to in yesterday’s Budget on clean energy, carbon capture and storage and hydrogen—which were backed up, by the way, with a commitment from a Canadian investor of another £1.8 billion in offshore wind—show how much this Government are in tune with the business community? We are attracting investment and building on the investment summit, and we will deliver jobs for our constituents and our communities up and down the country.

[Sarah Jones]

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. I also agree with the former Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in his article yesterday. I quote:

“Conservatives, like myself, should be honest”

and

“Reeves is cleaning up our mess”.

Port Talbot Transition Project

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Wednesday 11th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

The right hon. Gentleman will know that this has long been a campaigning issue of mine. I have talked repeatedly about the relationship between decarbonisation and the potential for deindustrialisation, and the policy environment in this country not being fit for purpose to deliver that. On the wholesale electricity prices of energy-intensive industries, for most of the time under the previous Government the UK’s prices were wildly uncompetitive. There was some movement, as he knows, with the supercharger policy near the end. More can be done, and there is an even more exciting longer-term position that we could get to. He will have to wait for the Budget, and maybe the spending review, for some more detail on that, but this issue has to be an essential priority for the competitiveness of the UK. We have to recognise that a lot of the industries that we will transition to are very heavy users of electricity—not just clean steel, but for instance gigafactories. This will be a key tool in the future that we have to do better on than we have in the past 14 years.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on securing this improved deal. I know how hard he has worked over many years, not just in the short term before and since the election, as he referred to in his answer to the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith). On procurement, will there be a presumption in favour of using British-produced steel both in nationally significant projects in green energy and in defence? That would be in stark contrast to what the previous Government did, in particular with the fleet solid support contract.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I thank my hon. Friend for all his support during our years in opposition, when we tackled many of these issues. He asks about procurement. Of course, anything that we do as a Government will be consistent with international trade rules and our commitment to open markets and multilateralism. There is a legitimate way in which social value can be considered in Government procurement. Given the value and quality of what we produce in the UK, I am very confident in procurement playing a bigger part in the future of the steel industry. On defence and the blast furnaces, he will know that neither Scunthorpe nor Port Talbot plays a direct role in some of the key Ministry of Defence contracts. Sheffield Forgemasters plays more of a role in that. There are more capacities and capabilities that we can look to as a country for opportunities in the future.

UK Steel Manufacturing

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

I thank the hon. Lady for a very sensible and thoughtful list of questions. We will be putting the Industrial Strategy Council on a statutory footing, which is important. The points she makes about decarbonisation and support for the industry are really important. The previous Government supported the aims of dealing with the climate crisis and the need for decarbonisation, but they did not put in place any strategy to help anybody do anything on that front. We need a proper industrial strategy and, alongside that, a proper industrial decarbonisation strategy. How will our heavy industries decarbonise in a way that does not de-industrialise and does not mean that they shut up shop and go elsewhere? How will we make sure that we enable all these industries to thrive? The hon. Lady is right to say that it is not just about the steel industry. We are looking at a much broader range of industries by sector and by geography, to work out the best way to get this done in a way that protects jobs and protects our industry.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Steel is a strategically important industry for this country, as my hon. Friend has made very clear, and I welcome her commitment that decarbonisation must not mean de-industrialisation. We must avoid the mistakes of the past. One of the mistakes made by the previous Government was the delay in developing grid capacity and grid connections. How are this Government working with British Steel and Port Talbot to make sure that the grid capacity and connections are in place to enable electric arc furnace production to be started as soon as possible?

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend has hit the nail on the head, as I would expect him to. We face many challenges, but the grid is at the heart and soul of so many of them. When we met industry representatives in opposition, it was top of the list for everybody, and my hon. Friend knows that many companies are saying to us, “We’ve been told we can’t get a grid connection until the late 2030s.” This issue is a priority for us, and we are tackling it and working at pace. We have a whole range of policies to speed up the grid connections, to prioritise what we deal with first, and to work with the companies involved to make sure that we are going at pace. Steel is incredibly crucial, particularly in Scunthorpe, and we have to get it right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Thursday 14th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ghani]

Steel is vital to the UK, but we know that the industry needs to decarbonise for a sustainable future. The Paris agreement made it clear that the sector had to reduce its global emissions by 93% by 2050. The Government are actively engaging with the sector on how best to achieve that, but decarbonisation pathways for specific sites will be commercial decisions for individual companies. Industrial sectors, including steel companies, can bid into Government funds worth hundreds of millions of pounds to help them go green. As I mentioned, we have done a huge amount to support energy intensive industries.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The UK is the only major steel-producing nation where production is falling, but the Minister and her colleagues have been telling us for months that they cannot guarantee the use of UK-made steel in Government contracts, especially in the military. The thing is that the steel producers say that they can make whatever their customer asks by changing the production line. Will the Minister confirm that the reason we have a problem with steel in this country is the Government’s refusal to view it as a strategically important industry? The Conservatives’ sticking-plaster politics have failed steelworkers, as we have seen at Port Talbot.

[Ms Ghani]

I fundamentally disagree with the question—well, it was more of a statement. I made it clear when I took on this role that we would assess the level of steel in procurement contracts, and we have put together the steel procurement policy note, which will address how much steel is being procured in our contracts in the UK. We are doing a huge amount to ensure that the different types of steel that are needed are produced. We know how valuable the sector is, which is why we provided support with high energy costs and why we have a decarbonisation budget that the industry can link into. I fundamentally disagree with the hon. Gentleman’s proposition.