THE British Labour government’s business secretary has refused to confirm if the government can get the sufficient raw material supplies in time to keep the blast furnaces at British Steel running, after it took control of the Chinese-owned plant.
Emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament on Saturday to prevent owners Jingye shutting down its two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe.
Asked if he could guarantee the furnaces would remain open, Jonathan Reynolds said he would not comment ‘on the commercial aspect of supply’ but the take-over gave the ‘opportunity’ to obtain the coal needed.
The government said Jingye had been selling off raw materials, as well as not ordering more, before government officials took control.
Reynolds in fact was politically paralysed!
Asked several times by Laura Kuenssberg whether he was sure he would be able to get the supply of coal before current stocks run out, Reynolds insisted: ‘I’m not going to get into that’ but the take-over ‘was essential to maintaining steel production in the UK’.
Reynolds continued that the situation remains ‘difficult and challenging’.
Saturday’s emergency legislation ‘enables’ the government to keep the blast furnaces working, he said. Once a blast furnace is switched off it becomes incredibly difficult to restart production.
He confessed: ‘If we hadn’t acted the blast furnaces were gone and in the UK, primary steel production would have gone.’ He continued to plead: ‘If we hadn’t acted, you’d be asking how will we support the thousands who’ve lost their jobs.’
The Conservatives have criticised the government for not stepping in sooner to save the plant and protect jobs.
The fact of the matter is that currently we have a Labour government with a massive majority that is proving utterly unable to defend the jobs, wages, living standards and the futures of UK workers.
Their policy is to continue where the smashed-up Tory Party left off.
The ruling Labour government and the Tory opposition are in fact paddling the same sinking canoe.
Speaking to the BBC, Tory shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith moaned ‘the government could have seen this coming earlier’.
He said that the deal was a ‘botched nationalisation’ but argued that the Tories supported the deal with China because ‘it’s the least worst option on the table’.
The UK is now taking control of British Steel under its new emergency powers. Reynolds said the Labour government intervened after ‘it became clear’ that Jingye was intent on closing down the blast furnaces, no matter what financial support it received from the government.
The Chinese company rejected an offer of support in the region of £500 million, the government said, instead demanding more than twice that figure with no guarantees the blast furnaces would stay open.
In the House of Commons on Saturday, Reynolds said Jingye had not been negotiating ‘in good faith’, while on Sunday he suggested it had not been acting ‘rationally’. Jingye had put the UK’s ability to produce virgin steel at risk, Reynolds said yesterday, adding: ‘It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect.’
British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe is the last plant in the UK capable of producing virgin steel, which has fewer imperfections and is used in major construction projects like new buildings and railways.
Were the plant to cease production, the UK would become the only member of the G7 group of leading economies without the ability to make it – a prospect the government views as a risk to the country’s long-term economic security.
The current Labour government is looking for a buyer to take over British Steel. Earlier on Sunday, Reynolds told Sky News he would not sell it to another Chinese company.
Labour has a majority of 166. But it stands paralysed, unable to do what is necessary – nationalise British Steel. The alternative is to stand with the Chinese Stalinists and make good the current £700,000 losses a day.
In fact, workers are demanding that British Steel be nationalised, and what is required is a general strike and a Workers Government, that will put an end to the bankrupt capitalist system, nationalising the banks and going forward to world socialism. There is no other way forward!