Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

Debate between Dawn Butler and Jonathan Reynolds

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I think I must progress, Mr Speaker. I can see your indication to do so.

[Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I will take one more intervention.

[Dawn Butler]

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and for the considered way in which he is looking after the national interest. The steel unions—the GMB, Community and Unite—would like clarification that any board that is set up will have at its heart the steelworkers who have kept the steelworks going through thick and thin.

[Jonathan Reynolds]

We remain in close engagement with all the unions, which have been monitoring the situation closely. Again, I reiterate that the Bill is not in itself about a change of ownership; it is about a change of control to rectify the situation. However, I will certainly have regard to the comments my hon. Friend has made and, of course, the role of the workforce at all stages.

We will never accept the argument that steelmaking is a sunset industry. Steel is vital to every bit of the modern economy. Domestic demand for steel is set only to go up, not down. In the past few weeks alone, we have seen Heathrow airport announce multibillion-pound expansion plans requiring 400,000 tonnes of new steel, and Universal Studios confirm it will be building Europe’s biggest theme park and, where possible, will use UK-made steel to do so. This Government are backing the builders, not the blockers. With the action we take today, we have the chance to feed that boom with steel made in Britain.

The legislation we are setting out today will help to end the uncertainty that has been hanging over British Steel’s Scunthorpe site for too long. I welcome the Opposition’s support today for this recall, but this issue should have been resolved years ago. I believe they may now view it as a mistake to have given this essential national asset to this company.

I have to address the statement made by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, which I do as a matter of genuine regret. She claimed that while she did my job, she negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel to build an electric arc furnace at Teesside, followed by one at Scunthorpe. I wish to make it unequivocally clear to the House that the new Government inherited no such deal. We could not renege on that deal because it did not exist. On day one, I was told that there had been a lack of progress on this matter to date.