The government has just hours left to step in and help under-threat British Steel, or there will be nothing left to save, a union official has warned. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to nationalise the industry to stop the furnaces closing, leading to the loss of thousands of jobs and the UK losing its last remaining facility for making non-recycled steel.
Workers say the blast furnaces at its plant in Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire, will run cold in mid-May if raw materials, including iron-ore pellets, to keep them running are not bought by the end of the working week tomorrow.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, works convenor for Unite Martin Foster told the Mirror: “This week is very much sink or swim for us. If we can’t secure the supply of raw materials by tomorrow, we are pretty much sunk. It’s vital that the government act now or there may be nothing left to nationalise.”
Martin, a third-generation steelworker, added: “The company are speaking with the government as we speak. We’re sat here waiting for the company to call us in and give us the outcome from those talks”.
Up to 2,700 jobs are directly at risk and thousands of others in the supply chain following British Steel announcing its plan to shut the UK’s last two blast furnaces.
The firm’s Chinese owner Jingye said the furnaces at the plant were losing £700,000 a day, and were no longer financially sustainable.
The proposals would leave the UK as the only G7 country unable to make steel from scratch, after Tata announced it was closing it’s Port Talbot plant in South Wales, with the loss of 2,500 jobs.
Brigg and Immingham MP Martin Vickers, whose constituents are among those who would be affected by the closure, has said only government intervention can save the plant.
He said: “I have reached the conclusion that nationalisation is the only route open to ministers, it would give time to seek new private sector funding and for the world trading situation to, hopefully, stabilise.
“We now know that Jingye have cancelled the order for raw materials and unless a new order is placed this week production will cease by the middle of next month.”
Mr Vickers added: “Unless the Government take action this week to ensure the continuation of production beyond mid-May, it will be too late.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage also called for British Steel to be nationalised after visiting the plant in Scunthorpe on Tuesday.
Asked what he thought the future held for Scunthorpe if the steelworks closed, Mr Farage said it was “bleak”. He added: “There has to be an immediate nationalisation of this plant.”
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