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Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has told MPs that British Steel’s nationalization was a “possible opportunity” even when he started a draft law to save the company.
Reynolds said the decision to remember parliament for an urgent landing on Saturday was not easily taken, as he defended the government’s negotiations with Jingye, the Chinese owner of British Steel.
The draft law, he said, was a “proportional and indispensable” step to maintain the primary production of steel in the UK and protect 3,500 jobs, though he did not want to maintain the new power for “longer than they should”.
The 10 -page bill will give Reynolds the comprehensive powers to obtain control of any steel property that is considered to be at risk of closing. Steel companies or managers who do not comply with government orders can be fined or sent to prison for two years, according to the draft.
The draft law will allow the Government to instruct steel companies to keep assets in operation, and take on those assets if companies do not respect those guidelines. It also provides for a compensation scheme for the costs made by a company.
Reynolds acknowledged that emergency legislation was not a magic wand and that finding a private sector partner remained the government’s favorite option. Nationalization, however, remained the potential option in the long run, stressing that the company’s market value was zero.
It had become clear in recent days, Reynolds told MPs during the debate that the aim of the Chinese company was to cancel and refuse to pay for additional raw materials to ensure the continuous operation of the British Steel explosion furnaces, the only two remained in the United Kingdom.
The government, he added, had offered to pay for the materials, but Jingye instead made an anti-affairs for ministers to pay hundreds of millions of pounds without any conditions.
Conservative MP Alex Burghart said the government had “made a total pig morning” of the situation.
Andrew Griffith, the secretary of business in the shadows, accused the government of “nine months polluted and delay” and a “state with the nationalization of steel with British taxpayers in blow”.
The emergency debate comes after talks with Jingye to keep the ovens onwards founded. Jingye, who took over the British Steel in 2020, has been in talks with the government for more than 18 months for taxpayers’ support to move on to the greener forms of steel making.
She refused a bid of £ 500m from ministers last month after the announcement that operations were no longer “financially applicable”. The company said it has lost more than 700,000 A a month due to higher tariffs and non -competitive energy costs.
Jingye was not immediately available for comment on Saturday.
Industry Minister Sarah Jones said earlier that MPs faced a choice between passing the government bill or seeing the completion of making the primary steel in the United Kingdom.
She told Sky News: “If the explosion ovens are closed in an unplanned way, they can never be reopened, the steel is simply strengthened in those ovens and nothing can be done.”
Maintaining Britain’s steel making has become a strategic advantage for the government, which has set aside £ 2.5bn to support the sector. The closure of the two British Steel explosion ovens would leave the UK as the only G7 country without the ability to make steel from scratch.
Starmer’s government is developing an industrial strategy to support the essential sectors, and is particularly concerned about the threat to steel from 25 percent of US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Additional reporting from Chan Ho-Him to Hong Kong
