Parliament recalled today over future of British Steel

Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the future of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant hangs in the balance” as he yesterday unveiled emergency plans to take control of the company.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The prime minister will pass a bill through parliament in a single day today in an extraordinary step aimed at securing the future of the site. He stopped short of saying the government would nationalise the firm but said its emergency bill will give ministers “the power to direct steel companies in England, which we will use to protect the Scunthorpe site”.

Officials made it clear yesterday that the emergency bill was being tabled in a bid to keep the site’s blast furnaces online, with nationalisation the likely next step.

After crunch talks with British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye, officials in the Department for Business and Trade believed its intention was to stop the supply of raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces operating. If the furnaces are stopped, it is extremely difficult and costly to them back online.

The government’s Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill will give business secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct British Steel staff to order raw materials and keep the furnaces online. It will mean British taxpayers picking up the bill for the loss-making site, although government insiders stressed that the alternative, which would lead to thousands of job losses, would also be extremely costly.