UK lawmakers returned to Parliament from their Easter break on Saturday to approve an emergency rescue of the country’s last remaining factory that makes steel from scratch.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned lawmakers for the unusual Saturday sitting, only the sixth since World War II, to back a bill primarily aimed at blocking British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye Group, from closing the two massive blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in the north of England that are key in the steelmaking process.
The bill gives Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct the company’s board and workforce, ensure its 3,000 workers get paid and order the raw materials necessary to keep the blast furnaces running.
Jingye has said the Scunthorpe plant is losing £700,000 (US$910,000) a day as a result of challenging market conditions and increased environmental costs. The recent decision by US President Donald Trump to impose a 25 per cent tariffs on imported steel has not helped.
After parliament passed the bill, Starmer headed to Scunthorpe to meet workers, who were clearly relieved that the town’s steelmaking heritage, which stretches back around 150 years, has been preserved.
“You and your colleagues for years have been the backbone of British Steel, and it’s really important that we recognise that,” Starmer said. “It’s your jobs, your lives, your communities, your families.”
