23 hours ago
12
Mention steel and one of the towns you immediately think of is Scunthorpe. The steelworks site defines the area. It is huge, the equivalent of 1,133 Wembley football pitches. It extends well beyond the bounds of Scunthorpe itself, into my constituency, and employs hundreds of my constituents and many more beyond. The raw materials that feed the blast furnaces come in through the port of Immingham, which I represent at Westminster.
I have spent all my life living in this corner of Lincolnshire and am old enough to have witnessed the decline of Grimsby following the loss of its deep-sea fishing industry. Such losses affect every part of a community. When such industries decline and disappear people feel cut off from their heritage, their culture and so much more. The health of the local community deteriorates, chronic illnesses increase, there is lower life expectancy, reduced productivity, increased healthcare costs and lower community cohesion.
The world market in steel is broken and has been for many years. The present chaotic events that have followed from President Trump triggering a trade war have exacerbated an already difficult situation, and when that occurs, governments must step in. That doesn’t come easy to me or my party but if we are to maintain a steel industry, as we must, there is going to be a cost to the taxpayer whether that is through nationalisation or support for private owners. Governments of whatever colour must recognise this. Politics must not get in the way.
It appears to have come late to this government that the Chinese owners Jingye have apparently lost interest in maintaining production in Scunthorpe. It is, however, understandable if, as they claim, they are losing £700,000 every day the furnaces are operating. The owners have cancelled orders for raw materials and now hold all the aces.
This brinkmanship should not have come as a surprise to anyone. I first raised my concerns in Parliament on 5 September last year. Hansard records that I said: “There have been widespread media reports suggesting that coke will stop being imported from October, which would mean production would stop in Scunthorpe by Christmas. There are rumours concerning the fact that employees will be given notice very soon.”
On 16 October I repeated these worries in a Westminster Hall debate and yet, even allowing for the intransigence of the owners, ministers allowed things to drift to the point where Parliament has had to be recalled for this 11th-hour intervention.
The truth is that ministers should have clarified the legal position months ago.
I know the government does not want Scunthorpe to close the steelworks on its watch. They are vital for the nation’s security, apart from anything else. Unless action is taken in the very near future, I am afraid 2,700 direct job losses could occur, with thousands more in the supply chain. Do we, as a still significant manufacturing nation, an advanced economy, want to lose the capacity to produce our own steel and become the only G7 country in that position?
North Lincolnshire council, ably led by Councillor Rob Waltham, who has been to China to meet the owners, has put together contingency plans including the creation of an AI growth zone and a green growth zone. This will cost the taxpayer but it is the way forward as we transition to new steel production methods.
As I said in my urgent question last Monday, the government must nationalise the industry, to give it breathing space, to attract new private sector investment and to keep the jobs of those thousands of people. What we have heard from the secretary of state means that they are edging ever closer to full-scale nationalisation and if that is eventually proposed they will have the full support of the local community and, as their representative, they can rely on my support.
