11:54 Liam Byrne (Labour)

British Steel faces significant headwinds, not just from Chinese steelmakers flooding the market, but from the new 25% tariff from the United States, and we have to rise to the challenge of decarbonisation, yet we in this House must keep our eyes on the prize ahead of us. The Chancellor has just committed £100 billion-worth of capital investment, we are building affordable homes at a pace not seen in decades and we are investing £10 billion in defence. There is a market to seize, but only if we have the means to supply it. British Steel cannot profit from Britain’s future if Chinese firms are allowed to kill it today.

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12:03 Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat)

Looking ahead, many big questions remain unanswered. Will the Government immediately designate UK-made steel a nationally strategic asset? Will they be using direct reduced iron, and, if so, will that form part of the UK’s plans alongside protecting the production of virgin steel at Scunthorpe? When will the Government bring forward a comprehensive plan to ensure that more British steel is used in vital infrastructure projects, from defence to renewable energy? Will Ministers work shoulder to shoulder with our European and Commonwealth partners to tear down trade barriers, including by negotiating a customs union by 2030? Will they develop initiatives to retrain and upskill workers across the country as we transition to greener methods of steel production? How do the Government intend to respond to calls from UK Steel for the Government to achieve the lowest electricity prices in Europe, parity with competitors on network charges, and wholesale electricity market reform?

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12:16 Edward Leigh (Conservative)

Let us be honest: steelmaking in this country is under extreme stress. And why is that? Why are we loading the most expensive energy costs on to our own steel production? Why is Scunthorpe paying almost twice as much in energy costs as those in South Korea or in America? High energy prices make UK steel expensive to produce and uncompetitive versus that produced by our European counterparts. In 2024-25, the average price paid by UK steelmakers was £60 a kWh, compared with the German price of £50 and the French price of £43. We are making our own steel industry uncompetitive. We have to stop these green energy costs. We have to be realistic. The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has now left, but we need to get real. We can take steel into public ownership now, but if we go on loading costs on our industry, we will have to come back month after month and year after year.

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12:33 Bill Esterson (Labour)

I want to talk about Port Talbot, because the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee visited it two weeks ago. There will be a delay of several years between the closure last year of the blast furnaces there, and the opening of the new electric arc furnace, which is a massive cause for concern in south Wales and beyond. The excellent financial support provided by this Government, and Tata’s willingness to engage, are a good example of industry and Government being partners, and an indication that the industrial strategy that the Government plan to bring forward is already being effective.

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13:03 David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat)

We cannot go on like this. Steel is strategic, it is critical to our national resilience, and it matters just as much in south Wales as anywhere else. This Government’s failure to act swiftly in Wales, to consult transparently with workers and to invest in a serious and just transition has undermined confidence and left people in Port Talbot, Llanwern, Shotton and many others across Wales feeling abandoned.

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13:11 Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative)

We have another problem, which I hope the Government will deal with in the context of the Bill when they talk to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Things have changed. The Prime Minister himself has said that the world has changed. We have been operating in what we considered to be a global free market. I have argued for some time that this is not a free market. Far too many countries such as China have abused the rules of the free market, subsidised their industries ridiculously and used slave labour to produce their products. When that happens, the free market is dead. We must recognise that we will have to deal with those whom we trust and who do not break the rules. That means a whole rethink of the Government’s China policy and of whether we need to rush to China for investment. We need to ensure that we deal with our industry at home and that we produce things again.

There is much to be dealt with, and I urge the Government to listen to the House and to check all of this. Cheap Chinese steel is a desperate problem for us, and we need to work with other countries in dealing with it. We also need to get our costs down. On net zero, I hope that the Secretary of State will tell the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero that we cannot go on like this.

I am grateful for that, because it allows me to say something that I had not been planning to say: we sit on an island of gas, so why, for goodness’ sake, are we not drilling for it? We need it, and we will need it strategically. There is a need for strategic industry, and I agree with the Secretary of State on that. However, the issue does not stop there; it stops elsewhere, in the production of energy. I simply leave that point for him, and he can argue it with his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

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13:24 Tom Rutland (Labour)

Let us be clear: today is about not nostalgia, but national resilience and securing Britain’s future. Retaining a sovereign, primary steelmaking capability is critical to our economy and our national security, because steel is the backbone of our infrastructure, defence, energy and transport systems. Without the capacity to make steel from raw materials here in Britain, we are at the mercy of global markets and geopolitical shocks, and we would be outsourcing not just production, but power. Although we are resolute in our commitment to a green industrial future, the transition to clean steel must be a managed and just transition, not a cliff edge. That means keeping the furnaces operating in Scunthorpe as we establish and scale up the electric arc furnaces, because if we lose our primary steelmaking capability, we will not get it back. The skills will be lost, the supply chains broken and we will become entirely dependent on other countries, many of which do not share our environmental or labour standards, or, indeed, our geopolitical outlook.

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13:41 Harriett Baldwin (Conservative)

The Bill is a sticking plaster for a Government who, in opposition, had years to come up with a plan, but they have dithered and delayed. Ultimately, nothing will change for UK steel until the Government understand the damage that unrealistic and impossible “net zero by 2050” targets have done to British business and industry.

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13:49 Sarah Jones (Labour)

In the first 10 weeks after coming to power, this Government negotiated a better deal on Port Talbot and delivered a £200 million commitment to secure the future of Grangemouth. We acted last week on the zero emission vehicle mandate to secure our automotive industry. We are acting today to save the workers of Scunthorpe. The Government believe in direct action—in an active state securing the future of our industry across the UK.

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