Kemi Badenoch was left embarrassed during an emergency debate on saving British Steel – after being forced to admit her claim to have negotiated a deal to save Scunthorpe’s steel plant was not true.
Yesterday, she claimed: “As Business Secretary last year, I negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel to limit job losses and keep the plant running, including introducing an electric arc furnace in Teesside, similar to what I did with Port Talbot steelworks.”
But today, under questioning from Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, she was forced to admit the deal had not been completed, and there was no offer of money on the table for Chinese owners Jingye.
British Steel was sold to the Chinese firm in 2019, while Boris Johnson was Prime Minister.
After announcing plans in the Commons for the government to step in and keep the plant running, Mr Reynolds said the Tories “may now see it as a mistake to give this essential national asset to this company.”
But he said he wanted to clarify Ms Badenoch’s claims from a day earlier.
“I wish to make unequivocally clear,” Mr Reynolds told MPs.
“The new government inherited no such deal. We could not renege on that deal because it did not exist. On day one I was told there had been a lack of progress to date.
“So if such a deal was negotiated somehow in secret, I would ask the Leader of the Opposition to say how much money she agreed to give Jingye for this deal, what conditions were imposed upon it, and to state the obvious, building two electric arc furnaces in two different locations, would be more expensive than building one in one location – and given Jingye’s request to build two furnaces in Scunthorpe was for £1.2 billion in taxpayer support, what …”
He was then interrupted by Ms Badenoch raising a point of order – claiming Mr Reynolds’ assertions were “factually incorrect and a complete misrepresentation of the situation he inherited.”
Mr Reynolds rose to the despatch box again, offering Ms Badenoch a chance to clarify her statement.
“If the leader of the opposition agreed a deal with Jingye to cause massive job losses in Scunthorpe, transfer the jobs to a completely different place, at higher cost than the request the company made to us, I think she should be able to tell us.”
Ms Badenoch returned to her feet, claiming: ” Labour cannot negotiate…” – but finally admitted she had not agreed a deal with Jingye, only that they were “negotiating.”
She said the deal would have been like the one struck to keep the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales open, and that it would have been in place “had we not had a snap election.”
But Reynolds asked again: “If Jingye’s request was for £1.2bn to build at lesser cost in one place, what was the sum of money agreed by the leader of the opposition when she was Business Secretary to build in two places? Because it certainly wasn’t in the accounts…how much money was agreed with Jingye to close the jobs at Scunthorpe?”
As Ms Badenoch rose to her feet again, she was greeted by cheers and jeers from the Labour Benches.
“They’re cheering because they love this,” she said.
“They think that the public taking on billions of liabilities is fantastic.”
Then she admitted she had not, as she claimed, negotiated a deal.
“We had not finished the negotiation, so there was no amount. But it would have succeeded better than the terrible plan he’s got now.”
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