'Sabotage' row as ministers.race to keep steel plant alive

Chinese investment in UK infrastructure under fire as Jingye accused of planning to let British Steel’s Scunthorpe site fail

- DAVID MADDOX POLITICAL EDITOR

Ministers have secured raw materials needed to keep British Steel furnaces in Scunthorpe firing amid accusations that the plant's Chinese owners were poised to let it fail.

The materials - which have arrived by ship from the US - are enough to keep the furnaces running for the coming weeks while the government scrambles to secure the long-term future of the Jingye-owned site.

A row is now raging over whether China should be banned from investing in critical British infrastructure, with senior ex-ministers saying the crisis over the plant should be a "wake-up call" over Beijing's reach. China hit back yesterday, urging Britain to "avoid politicising trade cooperation or linking it to security issues", warning it risked losing the confidence of firms investing in the UK.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner visited the site yesterday to express confidence that the government will be able to keep it open.

A separate ship containing yet more coking coal and iron ore is on the way to Britain from Australia - cargo that was the subject of a legal dispute between British Steel and Jingye over the weekend, which has now been resolved. The materials have been paid for using existing Department for Business and Trade (DBT) budgets.

Business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "We will always act in the interest of working people and UK industry.