SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has questioned the UK Business Secretary on whether the UK Government would back the nationalisation of Grangemouth.
Flynn made the intervention as MPs gathered in Westminster on Saturday after being unexpectedly recalled from recess – the first Saturday recall since the Falklands War in 1982 – to debate emergency legislation intended to save the Scunthorpe plant.
The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill gives the Government the power to instruct steel companies in England to keep facilities open, with criminal penalties for executives if they fail to comply.
Ministers said these measures were necessary to keep the Scunthorpe blast furnaces open and protect both the UK’s primary steelmaking capacity and the 3500 jobs involved.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told MPs: “Many minds right now will be very much focused on the situation in Grangemouth, where we know that hundreds of jobs are going to be lost directly, thousands of jobs in the supply chain.
“Now, were I, or perhaps even the local member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Labour MP Brian Leishman), to bring forward a similar bill in respect of Scotland’s only oil refinery, to save it, to give him (Mr Reynolds) the executive power to do as he pleases, as he is doing with British Steel, would the Labour Party back it in the same way as it is backing this Bill today?”
Leishman has also voiced his backing for the nationalisation of Grangemouth, hitting out at his own party. Nationalisation of Grangemouth has been floated and debated within SNP circles, however the party has not launched a formal campaign advocating for it.
Reynolds replied that “this Labour Government has pledged £200 million to secure its long-term future”.
He added that “it is not a comparable situation and the behaviour of the company is not comparable to the situation in this case”.
The situation at Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland “is not a comparable situation” to the one at British Steel in Scunthorpe, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has told MPs.
Reynolds told the Commons: “I understand that some have asked about precedent or referenced other troubled industrial situations.
“And to be clear again, this is an exceptional situation, a unique situation, and the question for all members is whether we as a country want to continue to possess a steel industry, do we want to make the construction steel and rail we need here in the UK, or do we want to be dependent on overseas imports?”
Flynn later took part in the debate, telling MPs "Westminster is only interested in Westminster", and questioned why Grangemouth, smelters in Lochaber, or the Dalzell steelworks were included in the bill.
He said: "The answer why they are not being included is because Westminster is only interested in Westminster. It is not interested in Scotland. And I will not be shouted down by the members opposite because they need to hear the truth.
"Scotland's interests matter and the people of Scotland are watching."
Elsewhere, Plaid Cymru will seek to amend the bill to extend the Business Secretary’s powers into Wales, where blast furnaces have closed down in Port Talbot.
Plaid’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts told the Commons: “When the blast furnaces in Port Talbot closed down in September last year, his Government could have taken exactly the same legislative action as they are choosing to do today.
“We will be endeavouring to amend this Bill to include England and Wales, because there is still the opportunity for his Government to make a real difference to the community of Port Talbot and the 2,800 jobs they lost there.”
Reynolds replied: “The blast furnaces have already closed at Port Talbot.
“They are not available to be saved. That situation has moved on.”
