Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to nationalise British Steel in order to address concerns around security and to bolster domestic industries.
New legislation will give the government the ability to safeguard UK steelmaking capacity and avoid a sudden halt of production at Scunthorpe while it considers British Steel’s future.
The bill will be formally introduced in the King’s Speech on Wednesday and will see British Steel re-enter government hands for the first time since being sold off in 1988.
The firm has been in limbo for over a year – while it is still technically owned by Jingye Group, the Scunthorpe plant itself has been effectively nationalised and taken out of Chinese control. Last year, parliament passed emergency legislation to give the government sweeping powers to control the management of the plant and ensure that production continues so that the UK retains some level of steelmaking capacity as a national security necessity.
The government said it has been in discussions...