Why the Government should be braced to nationalise British Steel - Jayne Dowle

Speaking last week at a press conference in Scunthorpe, where the future of the Chinese-owned steelworks hangs precariously in the balance, Farage called for public ownership within days.

“There are three days left to save primary steel production in Britain,” he claimed. “There has to be an immediate nationalisation of this plant. It has to happen before the end of this week.”

At the time of writing, this was still to come to pass, but Farage said if an agreement could not be reached between owners Jingye Group and the government to fund raw materials and support the plant, it would be “the end of steelmaking in our country”, which was “unthinkable”.

It would not only be calamitous for the local community, with 3,000 jobs lost and the destruction of supporting local businesses – as happened throughout steelmaking towns in the 1980s - but potentially lethal for our national interest and security.

The pinch point, as the world descends into dangerous uncertainty, is that should Scunthorpe shut, the UK risks becoming the only G7 economy to lack primary steelmaking capacity.

Scunthorpe might come under the umbrella of ‘British Steel Limited’ but the ownership is anything but homegrown; the business was founded in 2016 with assets acquired from international producer Tata Steel Europe by private investment company Greybull Capital, then acquired by Beijing-headquartered Jingye Group in 2020.

Whilst Farage seizes the opportunity to make political capital in Scunthorpe, he finds an unlikely ally in Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, and chair of the select committee scrutinising the Department for Business and Trade. Byrne is also in favour of taking the plant into state hands.

“As the global trade war escalates, now is not the time to lose critical sovereign capability like primary steel-making,” Byrne said in a statement. “The owners clearly don’t have a long-term interest in modernising the business for the future, so ministers might as well bite the bullet and warn Jingye they are now in last chance saloon.

“Ministers should have a plan to nationalise ready to go, backed by the new firepower of the national wealth fund.”

It is reported that shipments of coking coal and iron ore are stuck at the docks in Immingham until Jingye Group and the government reach an agreement over who will pay for them. These are vital in order to provide at least a stopgap solution for the plant to stay operational, and allow the blast furnaces to keep burning, while discussions continue.

The Prime Minister meanwhile, says “all options are on the table”. In other words, he is sitting on his hands.

Whilst it is true that he must tread carefully and not make a mistake – as former PM Boris Johnson did, when under earlier calls for nationalisation he panicked and offloaded Scunthorpe to the Chinese – Starmer must also consider both the nation’s economic future, national security and his own political threats.

Farage and Reform UK snapping at his heels in Scunthorpe, especially with local elections coming up in May, and at least one previously-held Labour Westminster seat facing by-election, cannot be dismissed.

And surely, this ‘son of a toolmaker’ as Starmer’s been keen to remind us, must be fully aware that if major projects to ­improve Britain’s infrastructure and energy efficiency, such as the Sizewell C nuclear power ­station in Suffolk, are to come to pass, we need to be able to supply our own materials with which to build.

Given the tumultuous tariff-related events of the Trump administration so far, who knows what might happen next in global trade? We cannot afford to rely on any previous special relationships, and Europe will always look after its own.

And that’s before we even get onto national security, and big promises on upping our defence capabilities; where will the steel for those planes, submarines and warships come from?