British Steel is taken into public ownership to save UK supply

Keir Starmer with British Steel workers in Appleby Village Hall, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, last year. Photograph: Peter Byrne/AP View image in fullscreen Keir Starmer with British Steel workers in Appleby Village Hall, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, last year. Photograph: Peter Byrne/AP British Steel is taken into public ownership to save UK supply Scunthorpe factory is expropriated from China’s Jingye and ministers will ask a valuer to assess compensation British Steel has formally been taken into public ownership 15 months after the government stepped in to prevent the closure of its steelworks in Scunthorpe and the loss of 4,000 jobs. Keir Starmer on Thursday said that it was in the national interest for the government to take over the factory from its Chinese owner, Jingye, in one of the last significant actions overseen by him as prime minister after the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Act received Royal Assent on Wednesday. The Labour government stepped in with an emergency recall of parliament to prevent the closure of British Steel in April last year, after Jingye threatened to walk away without taking steps to preserve the blast furnaces in Lincolnshire. That would have meant the imminent shutdown of Britain’s last remaining producer of primary steel from iron ore. The company has been under the management of government officials since then, to the fury of Jingye, but the Chinese company remained the economic owner until the expropriation on Thursday. The government will now appoint an independent valuer to “assess whether any compensation is payable”. Jingye has argued in its UK accounts and in statements on its WeChat social media account that British Steel was a valuable asset worthy of large compensation , even though it had been prepared to walk away z and let it fail. Starmer said: “British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain’s industrial strength. “Today’s decision secures the future of steel making in the UK, protects skilled jobs and safeguards a vital national capability. This government will always act in the national interest to support British industry, strengthen our economy and ensure the industries we rely on can thrive long into the future.” The government said that “despite extensive discussions”, it could not reach a deal with Jingye that would “secure the future of the company while delivering value for taxpayers”. Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said the government had nationalised the UK’s “one virgin steel producer here in Scunthorpe” because “if this were to disappear, we would become at the mercy of international markets and the supply from other countries for the kind of production that goes into our railways and our construction”. Pressed on whether the blast furnaces would continue to produce virgin steel in the long term, Kyle told Times Radio: “In the future, that will be a decision for this business and the government to decide going forward. skip past newsletter