Government remains ‘confident’ it will secure supply of materials needed to keep Scunthorpe blast furnaces burning
The government remains “confident” it will secure the supply of materials needed to keep blast furnaces burning at the Scunthorpe steel plant, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are now confident in securing the supply of materials needed. Obviously we will be working with the management to identify further raw materials needed to keep a steady pipeline, and to keep the furnaces burning.
“I’m not going to get ahead of what comes next, but we’ll obviously now work on the issues of ownership.”
The spokesperson added there are two ships carrying materials docked at Immingham port in North Lincolnshire, with “a third ship which is currently en route off the coast of Africa, which will be making its way to the UK”.
The spokesperson would not say whether money had been exchanged for the materials, and said they would reach the plant in the “coming days”.
Downing Street also attempted to play down claims that there had been deliberate “sabotage” of steel-making efforts at the plant, saying:
No, we’re not aware of any deliberate acts of sabotage. But as the business secretary and the industry minister said over the weekend, [during] the talks that we were engaging with the Chinese owners [it] became clear that they wanted to shut the blast furnaces. That wasn’t an outcome that we wanted to see. They had decided not to order more raw materials.
Earlier China’s foreign ministry warned the UK not to “politicise” trade cooperation or “link it to security issues” in order “not to impact the confidence of Chinese enterprises in going to the UK.”
Key events
Tulip Siddiq has claimed allegations by Bangladeshi authorities against her are a “politically motivated smear campaign” and insisted there is “no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong”.
PA Media reports that speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate Labour MP said: “no one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media.
“My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded. I’m sure you’ll understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign It’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me – there is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong.”
Siddiq resigned from her post in the Treasury earlier this year after an investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser into her links to her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina
Yesterday it was reported An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from Hasina.
Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
Scotland must not be an “afterthought” for the UK government, John Swinney has said, as he called for the Grangemouth refinery to be nationalised.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the first minister said: “If British Steel is to be nationalised to protect it, then so too should Grangemouth. I’m determined to make sure that Scotland is not viewed as an afterthought.”
Owners Petroineos announced plans to shutter the Grangemouth refinery last year and it was confirmed in recent weeks that 377 workers have accepted voluntary redundancy, with a further 28 compulsory redundancies.
PA Media quotes a Petroineos spokesperson saying: “If governments had wanted to seriously consider different ownership models, the time to start that work was five years ago when we first alerted them to the challenges at the refinery. We have also been clear throughout about the fundamental operational challenges and the scale of losses incurred.”
The government has issued a further comment on the decision by authorities in Hong Kong to refuse entry to Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse. It said:
During his visit to mainland China and Hong Kong, minister for trade policy and economic security Douglas Alexander relayed our immediate and deep concern regarding MP Wera Hobhouse’s denial of entry into Hong Kong.
Minister Alexander raised our concerns and demanded an explanation with senior Chinese and Hong Kong interlocutors, including Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, to understand why the Hong Kong authorities refused access to a British MP.
It is deeply concerning that a UK MP was refused permission to enter Hong Kong last week.
Unjustified restrictions on the freedom of movement for UK citizens into Hong Kong only serves to further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation and the important people-people connections between the UK and Hong Kong.
As the foreign secretary has made clear and Minister Alexander relayed in person, it would be unacceptable for any MP to be denied entry for simply expressing their views.
Downing Street was also asked earlier to comment on the latest situation with waste disposal in Birmingham, where office-based military specialists have been called in to deal with the mounting piles of rubbish on the streets.
PA Media reports the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
The residents of Birmingham are our first and foremost priority. That’s why we’ve provided a number of staff to support the council to help get the streets cleaned up and address the public health risks.
This includes coordinating the local response with local authorities, providing additional vehicles and crews, and opening household waste centres to Birmingham residents and, as set out over the weekend, a handful of office-based military personnel are supporting operational planning and have made themselves available to the council to support.
And as the deputy prime minister has said, we are now urging Unite to suspend its action and accept the offer that is on the table.
Downing Street said there “no plans” to bring in frontline personnel, and claimed that more than 100 vehicles had left depots on Monday morning.
Earlier the Conservative party attempted to use the issue as part of their campaign for the local elections taking place in some parts of England on 1 May. In a message posted to social media, the party said “Labour have lost control of Britain’s second city. Now Keir Starmer is being forced to call in the ARMY to bail out his failing Labour-run council.”
Earlier this year, when proposing its budget, Cllr John Cotton, leader of Birmingham city council, said “Birmingham city council is facing a number of financial challenges. Our situation has been made much worse by a national crisis in local government finance.”
“A combination of austerity and underfunding – Birmingham has lost over £1bn in funding since 2011 – added to a rising demand for services and inflation mean that, across the country local authorities are facing some of the biggest budget challenges in living memory.”
Government remains ‘confident’ it will secure supply of materials needed to keep Scunthorpe blast furnaces burning
The government remains “confident” it will secure the supply of materials needed to keep blast furnaces burning at the Scunthorpe steel plant, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are now confident in securing the supply of materials needed. Obviously we will be working with the management to identify further raw materials needed to keep a steady pipeline, and to keep the furnaces burning.
“I’m not going to get ahead of what comes next, but we’ll obviously now work on the issues of ownership.”
The spokesperson added there are two ships carrying materials docked at Immingham port in North Lincolnshire, with “a third ship which is currently en route off the coast of Africa, which will be making its way to the UK”.
The spokesperson would not say whether money had been exchanged for the materials, and said they would reach the plant in the “coming days”.
Downing Street also attempted to play down claims that there had been deliberate “sabotage” of steel-making efforts at the plant, saying:
No, we’re not aware of any deliberate acts of sabotage. But as the business secretary and the industry minister said over the weekend, [during] the talks that we were engaging with the Chinese owners [it] became clear that they wanted to shut the blast furnaces. That wasn’t an outcome that we wanted to see. They had decided not to order more raw materials.
Earlier China’s foreign ministry warned the UK not to “politicise” trade cooperation or “link it to security issues” in order “not to impact the confidence of Chinese enterprises in going to the UK.”
As well as drawing comparisons with the government’s actions over Grangemouth from the SNP [see 9.30am], Labour’s intervention to try to save the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe has been contrasted with its actions over Port Talbot.
GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast has told the PA news agency that the comparison with latter was “not entirely” fair, adding that the Westminster government had been “willing to take the bull by the horns” to keep the Scunthorpe plant going.
Asked whether it was “unfair” of the government to take control of the works in Scunthorpe but not in Port Talbot, Prendergast said: “The difficulty is it’s not entirely a fair comparison, largely on the basis of the majority of stuff that under Port Talbot happened under the previous government.”
He continued, saying:
Frankly, when it came to the industrial strategy, they were asleep at the wheel. You know, when you look at steel specifically, they [the Conservatives] oversaw our steel industry shrink to half the size it was.
I think the steps being taken in Port Talbot were belated but welcome by the current government, but I think it’s a little bit of an unfair comparison.
This [Scunthorpe] was our last blast furnace, it was a different situation, and we have a different government at the wheel, and we’re thankful that we actually have one willing to take the bull by the horns and actually do something which was notably lacking under the last government.
Torsten Bell, who has been MP for Swansea West since the last election, just issued the following statement via social media:
The Conservatives spent 14 years neglecting crucial decisions on the future of UK steelmaking. They left Port Talbot on the brink. The new government was not able to reopen the deal with Tata, but it did renegotiate a better deal – in just 10 weeks. Labour’s deal secured the immediate future of steelmaking in Port Talbot. It laid the groundwork for long-term investment.
And it guaranteed enhanced protections for every Tata employee in Wales. Unlike the Tories – who announced £80 million to support Port Talbot’s transition but didn’t actually spend a penny – Labour has already delivered that full sum, with funds dedicated to retraining workers, creating new jobs and supporting local suppliers.
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts described the decision to seize control of the British Steel operation in Scunthorpe as a “bitter day for the people of Port Talbot”. She said:
People in south Wales have been loyally voting for Labour for decades. Does this Labour government therefore feel proud that those votes have been paid back by Tory-style deindustrialisation in Port Talbot? Plaid Cymru has consistently called for nationalisation, but the Labour first minister of Wales rejected our calls.
My colleague Jasper Jolly has this explainer as to why there a race to find raw materials for the beleaguered Scunthorpe steelworks.
Swinney delivers emergency legislative programme changes
Severin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has signalled this year’s Scottish spending and legislative programme will be rewritten to cope with the economic “turbulence” triggered by Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade wars.
Swinney said on Monday morning his devolved administration’s programme for government – the set piece annual statement unveiling its legislation and spending priorities, will be brought forward by four months from September to May this year.
He told reporters in Edinburgh his government needed to be “on the front foot”, despite its limited economic powers, and had to “sharply address the economic challenges we face.”
Swinney admitted that he also wanted to be seen by voters to be reacting quickly to the global downturn before next year’s Scottish parliament elections, where the Scottish National party he leads hopes to win a fifth successive term in office.
He said President Trump’s tariffs regime, which involves an across the board 10% tariff increase which will hit Scottish whisky and salmon exports to the US, was likely to harm the economy, increase prices, suppress wage growth and harm jobs.
He said that would likely reduce tax income for his government.
However, the programme for government is a policy agenda, not fiscal. As it is not a budget, it will not change Scotland’s tax regime (including the lowest income tax rates in the UK for the less well-off and the highest for higher earners) or economic subsidies, or cut departmental budgets.
He said the Scottish National Investment Bank, which is theoretically independent, would instead be given new priorities for its £200m in spending, as would Scotland’s three enterprise agencies.
There was scope too for redirecting £150m in offshore renewables receipts and unallocated spending in this year’s budget. That could all help bolster inward investment from particularly US companies eyeing up business opportunities in Scotland.
Swinney said he had urged Keir Starmer, the prime minister, during a phone call on Friday, to relax the UK Treasury’s “self-imposed” fiscal rules to allow more borrowing, and to immediately approve UK spending on the Acorn carbon capture project in north east Scotland and a new “exascale” super computer at Edinburgh university.
That “doesn’t require a fundamental realignment of the budget, but there is a need to challenge ourselves on policy, to make sure that the policy interventions that we take are commensurate with the scale of the challenges that we now face,” he said.
China tells UK not to ‘politicise’ British Steel crisis, urging ‘fairness’ towards Jingye
China responded to the British government stepping in to take control of Chinese-owned British Steel at the weekend by telling the UK not to “politicise” the process, with the Chinese embassy calling for fairness.
In a statement the Chinese embassy said “We are following closely the developments of British Steel involving the Chinese private company.
“We have urged the British side to act in accordance with the principles of fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination and to make sure the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese company be protected.”
The statement continued “It is an objective fact that British steel companies have generally encountered difficulties in recent years,” adding “It is hoped that the British government will actively seek negotiation with the relevant Chinese company to find a solution acceptable to all parties.”
Separately, carrying a threat about future Chinese investment in the UK, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry urged the British government on Monday to “avoid politicising trade cooperation or linking it to security issues, so as not to impact the confidence of Chinese enterprises in going to the UK.”
“When it comes to the operational difficulties currently faced by British Steel, the two sides should negotiate a solution on the basis of mutual benefit,” Reuters reports spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular news briefing in Beijing.
Beijing said it hoped London would “treat Chinese businesses that have invested and operate in the UK fairly and justly, protect their legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”
The director general of UK Steel, the trade association for the steel industry in the country, has issued a statement on the latest developments with the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe. Gareth Stace said:
The Act passed this weekend by the Government gives British Steel and its workers breathing space while a long-term situation for the site’s operations is found.
The next and most immediate step is securing the iron ore and coking coal needed to keep the furnaces operating. If the furnaces cool down, it is virtually impossible for them to be restarted.
We applaud the herculean efforts of officials and British Steel staff to secure these supplies. Dozens of other steel companies have offered assistance and materials, demonstrating that, at times of crisis, the sector comes together as one. The success of our steel industry sits above any individual business.
UK Steel and our members stand ready to do all we can to support British Steel in these efforts.
Former Conservative MP Craig Williams is among 15 people who have been charged after bets were placed on the timing of the 2024 general election, the Gambling Commission has revealed.
Among others facing charges are Russell George, the Senedd member for Montgomeryshire, and Nick Mason, a former chief data officer for the Conservative party.
Steve Bray, 56, known as the “Stop Brexit Man”, has been cleared at Westminster magistrates court in London of flouting a police ban on him playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside parliament in March last year.
More details soon …
British Steel has announced the appointment of Allan Bell as interim CEO and Lisa Coulson as interim chief commercial officer with immediate effect.
Bell and Coulson have been long term employees of British Steel, the company said, and in a statement the new interim CEO said:
Our sole focus is ensuring a secure and sustainable future for British Steel’s production in Scunthorpe.
Our immediate priorities are securing the raw materials we need to continue blast furnace operations, ensuring we have the dedicated personnel to run those furnaces, and maintaining the highest levels of health and safety for our workforce.
We look forward to working in partnership with our colleagues in government, the trade unions and the workforce here in Scunthorpe.
Two areas where the Conservatives have been criticising Labour’s handling of the British Steel crisis are over the cost of energy for industry in the UK and the government’s general taxation policy toward businesses.
Appearing on GB News, shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin said:
[Energy prices are] a really important issue. I’m very disappointed that this government has, for example, got rid of some of the new production of our oil and gas and I think there needs to be a rethink on this front.
I also think that in terms of the costs that this government has put on, for example, steel production, but also business right across this country; the fact that they’ve increased national insurance on everyone, they’ve increased business rates on this plant at Scunthorpe.
It just shows that they’re not backing business, that what we’ve got here is actually a government by the unions, of the unions and for the unions.
Another opposition frontbencher, Andrew Griffith, the shadow secretary of state for business and trade, has also joined in. On social media he has responded to a quote suggesting Keir Starmer would protect jobs and businesses by posting “And yet Ed Miliband is still serving in his cabinet …” in a reference to net zero policies.
Treasury minister James Murray was also pressed on this during his interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Presenter Nick Robinson said to him that the country has high energy costs because “successive governments have insisted on what you call green energy, driving those prices up and make it unsustainable to produce steel, whereas China, they don’t have that problem. They kept their coalmines open. They continue to produce power from coal, as they do in India as well. And what we do is buy other people’s coal, buy other people’s steel, which isn’t helping the planet at all.”
Murray responded by saying “We need to make sure that the future of steel making in the UK is sustainable, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing down energy costs for businesses.”
He claimed the government had planned an investment of £5bn over ten years “to help the energy intensive industries with the high cost of energy.”
He said “making sure that we have energy independence and energy security here in the UK is critical for businesses and for households, to bring down bills.”
Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, has spoken to PA Media about his understanding of the situation, telling the news agency he was “hopeful” that the materials needed to keep furnaces at the Scunthorpe steel plant burning will be delivered in the next 48 hours.
He said:
Where we are at the moment is that we’re confident that the deal being done with the raw materials, and the steps being taken will get there on time, and ultimately that has the potential to preserve the future for the plant.
There still needs to be a deal to be done for the future. Whether that’s our preference – which is nationalisation of what is a key national asset – or whether that’s a genuine private investor who’s willing to come in and put the money.
I think for us the key thing is that we keep this plant going and keep virgin steel-making capacity in the UK.
We’re being told it’s going to come in good time, so we’re hopeful that it’s the next 48 hours but we haven’t had confirmation of that. However, we believe the steps taken would be meaningless if there weren’t the logistics in place to get it to the plant on time.
As a reminder, the plant, which is the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel in England, needs raw materials within the next fortnight, including iron pellets and coking coal, or else it faces the prospect of the furnaces cooling to a point where it is neither easy nor cost-effective to bring them back.
Treasury minister James Murray has criticised previous Conservative governments for their approaches to relations with China, saying that the current Labour administration needed to be “cool-headed, clear-eyed and pragmatic” in its dealings with the country, as there were significant economic implications.
Asked outright on LBC radio if, in the wake of the British Steel crisis, the government should be treating China as a hostile state akin to Russia or Iran, Murray said “No. China is not a hostile state.”
He continued, telling listeners:
China is a country with whom we have a large important relationship. We need to be pragmatic about it and understand that we have different ways of interacting with China in different areas of our relationship.
China is the second-biggest economy in the world, fourth-biggest trading partner for the UK, and there are 450,000 jobs in Britain that depend on exports to China, so we need to engage with them.
But I think if you look at what’s happened in recent years under the previous governments it either arguably was too naive and too “not eyes open” under Cameron and Osborne, and more recently in the latter days of the previous government, there was no engagement at all.
And I think neither of those are quite the right approach. We need to be cool-headed and clear-eyed and pragmatic about this, and realise there areas where we’re going to cooperate, some where we’re going to compete and others where we’ll challenge.
