Good morning. On Saturday, parliament passed a special measures bill that grants the government emergency powers to take control of British Steel after its Chinese owner, Jingye, turned down state support to keep the Scunthorpe plant operating over the coming weeks, placing thousands of jobs at risk. Scunthorpe contains Britain’s last two functioning blast furnaces and produces 95% of the steel used for the country’s railway system.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has been engaged in urgent discussions with Jingye for months, and previously succeeded in averting a closure before Christmas. However, last month Jingye warned that the “hugely challenging circumstances the business faces”, worsened by Donald Trump’s tariffs and environmental regulations, would result in the plant’s closure.
Plans to shift towards lower-emission steel production using electric arc furnaces fell through, despite last-minute efforts to make the deal more attractive to Jingye, including an offer to buy the raw materials required to keep the blast furnaces running in the short term. Reynolds said that by the end of last week “it became clear to me and to the government, no financial offer of any generosity would have been accepted”.
The new powers granted to the business secretary do not technically constitute nationalisation but a decision on that is expected within the next two weeks. In the meantime, Jingye still owns the site.
Today’s newsletter goes through what led to the weekend’s events, and what they might mean for the future of British Steel. But first, today’s headlines.
Five big stories
UK news | Parliament’s home affairs cross-party select committee published a report into the police response to the disorder that broke out across the country after the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on 29 July. MPs considered accusations that the riots were policed more strongly than previous protests, but said that claims of “two-tier policing” were “baseless”. The report found that the way police responded to the riots that swept the country last summer was “entirely appropriate”.
Windrush | A £1.5m fund has been launched to encourage people affected by the Windrush scandal to come forward to seek compensation, as ministers finally acknowledge that many victims have felt too nervous to engage with officials from the Home Office.
Strikes | Office-based military specialists have been called in to deal with the mounting piles of rubbish on the streets of Birmingham after a month-long strike by refuse workers. Birmingham city council has declared a major incident and issued a public health warning since the all-out-strike by Unite union members began on 11 March.
Ukraine | At least 34 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a Russian ballistic missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people were going to church for Palm Sunday, in the Putin regime’s worst attack on civilians this year.
China | The government could target parts of China’s security apparatus under new foreign influence rules, the Guardian has learned. Ministers are considering including parts of the Chinese state accused of interference activities on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme.
In depth: Market volatility has put pressure on the government to keep the industry afloat
Concerns that Jingye intended to close the plant were first raised in September. But the situation became particularly alarming when the Chinese company ceased ordering additional raw materials and started selling off supplies. There was no returning to the negotiation table after Jingye rejected a £500m state rescue package and refused to guarantee that the furnaces would continue operating.
In response, in a rare weekend sitting, MPs were recalled from their Easter break in order to keep the furnaces running and prevent the collapse of the Scunthorpe business. As John Crace noted in his sketch, it was the first time the Commons had been summoned back on a Saturday since the Falklands war of 1982.
Now, British Steel is looking at offers of help from more than a dozen businesses to get the raw materials it needs to avoid the risky shutdown of one of the two furnaces.
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A short timeline
British Steel was nationalised in 1967, bringing together more than a dozen private companies to form one of the largest steel producers in the world. Two decades later, the industry was privatised and broken up under Margaret Thatcher.
Tata Steel Europe sold the Scunthorpe steelworks to Greybull Capital, a private equity firm criticised as a “vulture fund”, for £1 in 2016. The company was renamed British Steel in a deal that included a pledge of £400m in investment. Within two years it entered insolvency. The company was nationalised in 2019 for 10 months while a new buyer was sought, during which time it cost the taxpayer £600m.
Jingye took over British Steel the following year, pledging £1.2bn in investment and offering assurances from its chief executive, Li Huiming, of the “beginning of a new illustrious chapter” in the history of British steelmaking. That chapter proved to be rather short.
By last September, Jingye had reversed course and was preparing to abandon its plans for electric arc furnaces and to bring forward the closure of its blast furnaces ahead of Christmas. The government succeeded in pulling Jingye back, but that was short-lived as well.
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What now?
Reynolds now holds emergency powers that enable him to compel the company to buy the raw materials it needs, with the government covering the running costs, which Jingye estimates at approximately £700,000 per day in losses. A failure to order enough coal and iron has resulted in a shortage of vital raw materials that the plant needs imminently to remain operational. Without them, the furnaces would shut down, making closure all the more likely. Reynolds has however refused to say whether British Steel will be able to get the raw materials it needs in time.
The running costs are set to make a significant dent in the government’s £2.5bn steel fund. Reynolds said that the cost to the economy of closing the plant would have been at least £1bn, a figure he said would exceed the losses anticipated from nationalising the site.
The business secretary did not accuse Jingye of deliberately sabotaging the plant, though he did say that “it might be neglect”. The government does not expect Jingye to re-enter negotiations but Reynolds added that recent events had raised a “high trust bar” for Chinese firms seeking to invest in key British industries.
Increasing volatility in global markets, particularly in light of the Trump administration’s stance on European security and trade tariffs, has perhaps also put pressure on the government to keep the British steel industry afloat.
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Is nationalisation the long-term answer?
A spokesperson for Community, the trade union that represents the majority of British steelworkers, said in an interview that nationalisation was “the right course of action”. And in parliament this issue made for strange allies with Reform’s Richard Tice and the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in agreement. Politically, the optics of the intervention is relatively uncomplicated: the public is in favour of nationalising steel and the government wants to be seen as saving a British industry.
However, there are significant long-term questions for the government. The plant requires substantial investment to remain viable – the construction of two electric arc furnaces could cost as much as £6bn, according to the BBC. The energy costs associated with running new or existing furnaces are also very high. How this aligns with Rachel Reeves’s commitment to fiscal discipline remains uncertain. Labour has averted an immediate crisis but that offers no guarantee of long-term security.
What else we’ve been reading
With the trees holding on to their spring blossom the time is ripe to read about model turned no-dig gardener Poppy Okotcha’s new book which explores the transformative power of gardening. She blends practical growing tips with personal reflections on healing and heritage. Katy Vans, newsletters team
So many unsuspecting people and institutions have been caught up in the US’s hardline immigration response. Leyland Cecco highlights one striking example: a library that straddles the US-Canada border, whose main entrance, located in Vermont, has been closed off to Canadians due to unsubstantiated allegations of drug trafficking and smuggling. Nimo
Reflecting on four decades of writing about science for The Observer, Robin McKie laments the most important topic he has covered: the dangerous climate experiment that humans are carrying out on themselves. Katy
As markets tumble and the global economy reels from a crisis entirely of one man’s making, David Smith offers a fascinating (and chilling) report on Donald Trump’s disturbingly casual attitude amid the chaos. Nimo
Is the Welsh actor and director Michael Sheen the right person to be fronting the new Welsh National Theatre, or will his celebrity divert funds and focus away from local grassroots projects? Jude Rogers investigates. Katy
Sport
Golf | Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters in dramatic fashion, beating Justin Rose in a one-hole playoff after a rollercoaster final round in Augusta, Georgia. McIlroy’s win completes a career grand slam, making him just the sixth golfer in history to win the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open and British Open.
Football | Without manager Eddie Howe, who was hospitalised on Friday, Newcastle stormed to a 4-1 win at Manchester United on Sunday. Elsewhere, Virgil van Dijk’s 89th-minute header edged Liverpool closer to the title against West Ham, while a crushing 4-2 loss to Wolves increased the pressure on Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou.
Formula One | McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the Bahrain grand prix on Sunday evening, his second win of the season. Teammate Lando Norris placed third, boosting McLaren’s early lead in the constructors’ standings.
The front pages
“Rivals join race against time to save Scunthorpe blast furnaces” is the Guardian’s splash while the Times has “Call to stop China from ‘sabotaging’ UK industry”. The i welds those together: “Chinese firms may be blocked from critical UK sites in future after steel ‘sabotage’ warnings”. “Britain in blast chance saloon” – dear oh dear, Metro. “Kemi declares – it’s time to buy British” says the Express. “Time to stop ‘appeasing’ extremists in our jails” says the Daily Mail after an attack on prison officers, while the Mirror asks about the Manchester Arena plotter: “Why on earth did he have boiling oil?”. “Army sent in to clean up rubbish on streets” is the news from Birmingham leading the Telegraph. Top story in the Financial Times is “Big Tech dealt blow as Lutnick warns US tariff exemption will only be brief”.
Today in Focus
Ta-Nehisi Coates on why stories matter in the age of Trump
The award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates on why US liberals have misunderstood the role culture plays in shaping politics.
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Kidbrooke Village in Greenwich, once the Ferrier estate, has been transformed into a vibrant community where nature and modern living thrive together. The project includes 5,000 new homes surrounded by wetlands, ponds, and green spaces, designed to support wildlife like bats, newts, and birds. The development addresses flooding issues through sustainable urban drainage systems and repurposes old site waste into nature mounds.
David Mooney of the London Wildlife Trust celebrates the project, showing how housing and nature can exist in harmony: “Tell me someone that doesn’t want to have nature on their doorstep, who doesn’t want to see a dragonfly buzzing past their window when they’re doing the washing up?”
Kidbrooke Village stands as proof that thoughtful urban planning can create places where both people and wildlife can flourish.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
