Tens of thousands of steel jobs are at risk unless Liz Truss throws the struggling industry a lifeline, the embattled Prime Minister was warned today.
A union chief told the Premier: “Back our steel industry now or risk losing it forever.”
In the starkest alert yet over the difficulties dogging the sector, Community steelworkers’ union general secretary Roy Rickhuss warned Ms Truss: “The stakes couldn’t be higher, and time is running out.
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“Our industry is bleeding, we urgently need investment to stop us falling further and further behind the competition.”
The desperate call comes as the sector faces crippling power prices.
Insiders say rival firms in the EU benefit from help that makes UK companies less competitive.
They have repeatedly demanded a “level playing field” so Britain’s industry can thrive.
In a letter to the PM, seen by the Mirror, Mr Rickhuss warns her that “our industry cannot survive if you force us to continue paying energy prices way above those paid by our EU competitors”.
“The continued lack of support from government is killing our industry, and if that doesn’t change it will shut us down and cost thousands of jobs,” he tells her.
“This needs to be said clearly - in the absence of government backing we are careering towards the end of Britain’s proud history of steelmaking.
“Government must now decide whether it wants a steel industry in this country or not.”
The £2.4billion sector directly employs 34,500 workers in the UK and supports another 43,000 in supply chains.
But the industry has been hampered by energy costs and dumping of cheap foreign steel, particularly from China.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Steel and whose Aberavon constituency includes Britain’s biggest steelworks, Port Talbot, said: "Steel is a foundation industry that drives our entire manufacturing sector - and what's more it is vital for our national security, it provides tens of thousands of highly-skilled jobs and it plays a key part in our battle against climate change.
"Roy Rickhuss is therefore absolutely right to put this question fairly and squarely at the door of No10.
“Do we want our country to have a steel industry, or do we want to end up importing all our steel from China?
"The Government must act now.”
A Government spokesman said: “We recognise that businesses are feeling the impact of high global energy prices, particularly steel producers, which is why we announced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which will see business paying less than half of predicted wholesale costs this winter.
“This is in addition to extensive support we have provided to the steel sector as a whole to help with energy costs, worth more than £780million since 2013.”
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015 when the industry was hammered by plant closures and thousands of job losses.
