Parliament Votes Through Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill – Guido Fawkes

LIVE: Parliament Votes Through Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill

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Watch live as Parliament sits on a Saturday to vote through measures to take state control of remaining British steel production. The last time for the Commons was August 2021 – Afghanistan…

Jingye has owned British Steel since 2020. The company rejected a proposed £500 million bailout from the government. New powers to be voted through today will give the government control over the company in order for it to buy raw materials for the Scunthorpe works. If the iron and slag hardens, it’s game over…

Industry minister Sarah Jones said this morning on Sky News that this wouldn’t cost the taxpayer: “We have the £2.5 billion fund for steel which we had in our manifesto, that we will use if necessary, so there will be no extra costs to the exchequer that we don’t already have in our plans.” Here we go again…

British steel production was nationalised in 1949, denationalised in 1951, renationalised in 1967, and finally privatised in 1988 by Mrs Thatcher. Under state control it suffered from low capital funding, outdated practices, and high energy costs – it was quickly undercut in price and tech by foreign private competition…

The Lords is sitting from noon. All major parties support the measures – YouGov says 57% of Brits support the idea compared to 8% opposed. The Tories are arguing that Labour dropping their proposals to open an electric arc furnace in Teesside bungled the negotiations with Jingye. They ran it down to the wire, the government blinked…

Read the draft legislation in full below: