The Labour government has a British Steel-sized problem that doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon. Sir Keir Starmer’s army took control of the production plant on Saturday after parliament was recalled in a rare move. Legislation was pushed through both houses to prevent the closure of the UK’s only virgin steel producer after Chinese company Jingye threatened to turn the blast furnaces off. But despite the whole affair raising questions about why a Chinese business had been allowed to control a crucial UK production plant in the first place, now industry minister Sarah Jones has suggested that the Labour lot is, er, not ruling out another Chinese owner for the company. Good heavens…
Speaking on Sky News this morning, Jones was quizzed about whether the government would disallow another Chinese business taking over the plant. Labour’s minister for industry admitted: ‘Well, we are not at the moment.’ Going on, she said:
I am not going to say yes or no to anything that isn’t at the moment on the table or being looked at. Whatever the future for Scunthorpe, we want to make sure we can keep primary steel-making, we can keep steel making in our country and we can grow that industry, not see the continued decline that we have had over recent years.
How curious. Jones’ comments come after Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the Beeb’s Laura Kuenssberg that he didn’t to see another Chinese owner in charge of British Steel. ‘I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector,’ the Labour minister argued, before confirming that there would need to be a ‘high trust bar’ when dealing with companies from China in the future. You can say that again…
Reynolds’ comments followed his scathing attack on Jingye in the Commons on Saturday, where he accused the Chinese company of plotting to ‘irrevocably and unilaterally’ close down primary steelmaking in Britain. The business has been locked in a dispute with the Labour government since July over securing public funding for the construction of a more eco-friendly electric arc furnace in Scunthorpe – and in recent days, Jingye has refused to order enough raw materials to keep the current blast furnaces operating. Reynolds has insisted that with the introduction of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill, the government is acting in the country’s ‘national interest’. But today’s suggestion that it is still possible British Steel could end up in the hands of a Chinese company again is unlikely to allay concerns…
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