A BILL to give the UK Government powers to block the closure of British Steel blast furnaces has passed the Commons and the Lords during an emergency recall of both Houses.
Both the Commons and the Lords broke from Easter recess for a highly unusual Saturday sitting to debate a bill aimed at blocking the company’s Chinese owners, Jingye, from closing blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant.
The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill cleared the House of Commons after three hours of debate and later the House of Lords, meaning it will become law once it receives royal assent.
The bill cleared the House of Lords unchanged after the UK Government agreed to a full debate on the operation of the new law within six months of it coming into force.
Business minister Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said a sunset clause, which several MPs and Lords called for, would threaten to cause further uncertainty and create “an arbitrary deadline” for when the future of a plant would need to be settled by.
The plans will see taxpayer money used to provide materials to the steelworks and open the door to a transfer of ownership after Keir Starmer warned the future of the firm “hangs in the balance”.
Scottish and Welsh MPs told of their anger during the debate, as both nations face similar site closures. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn asked if Labour would back a bill to give the UK Business Secretary emergency powers to save Grangemouth as was proposed for British Steel.
Jonathan Reynolds highlighted the UK Government's £200 million investment in Grangemouth's long-term future, and said it was not a "comparable situation".
Opposition parties tabled eight amendments to the bill, which included three from the SNP and Plaid Cymru extending the bill’s scope to other parts of the UK beyond England, two from the Conservatives and one from the Liberal Democrats imposing time limits for using the powers in the bill, and one from the UK calling for the immediate nationalisation of affected steel works.
However, they were not debated "because there was no time" and the initial debate concluded after 2pm.
Business minister Sarah Jones, addressing calls for a “sunset clause” in the bill to ensure there is an expiry date on the powers given to ministers, told the Commons: “I want to reiterate what the Secretary of State (Jonathan Reynolds) explained in terms of the risk of a hard backstop reducing our leverage and that was why we have not put a sunset clause in.
“However, we’ve heard the House’s concern on this front so I can confirm we will repeal this legislation as quickly as we can, we will involve the select committee and I can also make this pledge to the House today that we will update the House regularly and (Mr Reynolds) has committed to do so every four working weeks.”
Jones said the Government is “not moving to nationalise British Steel today”, adding: “We are already taking very significant powers today that we do not underestimate, and this buys us time to have the leverage and the time we need to look at what must be done next.”
