Minister refuses to say if furnaces can keep going

THE Business Secretary has declined to guarantee that British Steel will be able to secure enough raw materials in time to keep its Scunthorpe blast furnaces going.

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Jonathan Reynolds said he would not “make my situation or the nation’s situation more difficult” by commenting on specific commercial details, the day after taking emergency powers to gain control of the Scunthorpe site.

If the blast furnaces run out of raw materials, they can never be turned back on.

Preventing that from happening was the primary reason for the Government recalling Parliament on Saturday to pass emergency legislation to keep the site open.

Mr Reynolds told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “If we hadn't acted, the blast furnaces were gone, steel production in the UK, primary steel producing, would have gone.