Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

Lee Barron Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lee Barron (Corby and East Northamptonshire) (Lab)]

Frankly, some of the contribution that we have just heard from the hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick) should have been made when the decisions were taking place—they should not have had to wait until today.

I commend the Secretary of State for how he has dealt with this issue and for getting us together for today’s debate. The idea that somehow we could have debated the negotiations as we were having them is for the birds, frankly, because all we would have done is tell our negotiating partners what we were going to the negotiating table for. Negotiations are not done like that, and nor should they be. And to those who have been moaning about us having been recalled on a Saturday, I say that you can recall me on any Saturday, at any time, and twice on a Sunday, if it means we can save industries and thousands of jobs. I will be here every time.

Some of us know what it is like. The town of Corby was built on steel. The people of Corby and East Northamptonshire know only too well what it is like to have the steelworks closed down and devastation befall local communities. When the Corby steelworks closed, 14,000 people lost their jobs and unemployment rose to 30%. Corby and East Northamptonshire was once home to the largest steelworks in Europe. Today, it employs just shy of 500 people, and it still manufactures 250,000 tonnes of steel tubing per year. We would not be the place that we are without the steelworks that Corby once had, and we know the devastation that the job losses would cause for the community of Scunthorpe. That is why this is the right thing to do.

We must maintain steelmaking capacity in the UK. In these increasingly uncertain times, we must maintain national security by having the ability to produce our own virgin steel. All options should be open, but the blast furnaces must not be switched off, because once that happens, they are gone. That is the problem in other parts of the country, and it should have been raised at the time. In any modern economy with a central mission for growth, production of our own steel is crucial. That will be at the heart of any future industrial strategy.

I am proud to be here today to support the Bill and to secure a future for steelmaking in the UK.