David Smith

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I agree absolutely. I want my constituents to trust that the people pumping their water, providing their power, connecting them to the wider world and making their steel have their interests at heart. I want them to get jobs in businesses that serve the common good, not international stock markets or foreign Governments. We need to have strategic industries in-house, so that we can trust that our economy is working for us. As we have heard today, Jingye appears to have at heart not the interests of the British people, but its own profit. Why should we accept that a decision made in a boardroom in China with links to the Chinese communist party can risk wiping out an industry that is the heart of one of our communities, and vital to our nation’s flourishing? If we were ultimately to nationalise steel, that would not necessarily be a perfect solution. A sluggish and over-subsidised steel producer would not serve Britain’s interests any more than one owned by foreign firms, but I believe we should keep nationalisation on the table. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Chris McDonald) said, we have the expertise and certainly the passion here in this country to succeed, and recent events have proved that the safest way to safeguard strategic parts of our national infrastructure is to do it ourselves. Privatisation has often been very bad for our country. That it takes Government intervention to secure the continuation of our last remaining plant producing virgin steel speaks volumes. My hope is that we soon move to the full nationalisation of British Steel and align that with our planned massive investment in skills through Skills England. After decades of fire sales of British industry, it is time for us to rebuild our industrial pride, our national security and our social covenant. To those ends, I urge the House to back Britain and back British Steel.