Jonathan Reynolds

When we took office, years of Conservative neglect had left our steel industry on the brink, but while others were willing to let the heart of British industry go cold, we were not. I welcome the recent conversion of Opposition colleagues to an active industrial policy, but make no mistake: while others may talk tough, only Labour can be trusted to act in the interests of British workers. When the future of British Steel was on the line, we took immediate action. I can report to the House that thanks to our intervention we have secured the raw materials to keep Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces lit, and British Steel has cancelled the redundancy consultation, which put 2,700 jobs at risk. It was an honour to visit Scunthorpe and Immingham port recently to meet British Steel workers, and I am enormously grateful to them for their resilience, determination and hard work during a turbulent time. There is still much to be done to protect and rebuild our steel industry as a whole after a decade of failure, and that is why we are committed to a £2.5 billion clean steel fund and to work with industry on our steel strategy. We have always said that steel has a bright future in this country, and our actions over the past month have shown that we meant it.