Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

Diane Abbott Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

Today, some of us have been surprised to hear the Opposition talk about a failure to prepare. The workers of Scunthorpe might say that they had 14 years to prepare, and failed.

British Steel’s products are essential to industry, to this country’s security, and to the delivery of major infrastructure programmes across the country, including in London. British Steel supplies Transport for London with the power rail used on its transport network, which is not manufactured anywhere else in the country. For railways, including the underground, power rail from British Steel is essential to the everyday operation of the service, which supports up to 4 million customer journeys each day. The closure of British Steel would have a very serious adverse effect on Transport for London’s services, as it would on projects up and down the country—so, above all, Transport for London believes in the importance of a UK-based supply chain for steel.

Finally, everyone in this House understands that the Bill is not about bringing steel into public ownership—whatever the Opposition assert—but some of us hope that moving on to nationalisation will not be ruled out. All of us on the Government Benches believe in what works, but privatisation certainly does not always work. The water industry comes to mind. Since privatisation, not a single reservoir has been built. Instead, billions have been poured into the pockets of shareholders. Now raw sewage floats in our waterways and rivers, and it is the consumer who will have to pay exorbitant charges for investment that should have been made all along.

This House supports the Government in moving to save British Steel and the jobs of thousands and thousands of workers. It also supports the Government in moving so quickly and with such certainty to protect the country’s interests, including in relation to security, and in working to save the community in Scunthorpe, because one of the issues with deindustrialisation is the long-term effect on many communities up and down the country. We all support what the Government are doing.