Javid to fly to Mumbai for talks over Tata

THE BUSINESS Secretary will travel to Mumbai tomorrow to meet the chairman of steel giant Tata as efforts to save thousands of jobs are stepped up.

Sajid Javid will hold talks with Cyrus Mistry to discuss details of the sales process for the firm’s UK steel operations.

The Indian conglomerate made a shock decision last Tuesday to sell its loss making UK business, threatening thousands of redundancies.

Mr Javid was in Australia on a business trip when the announcement was made, leading to union claims that he had “taken his eye off the ball.”

Mr Javid will take part in meetings in London before flying to India.

He will join the Prime Minister in Downing Street in the morning at a meeting with the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones and later is expected to hold talks with union leaders.

They are drawing up a plan to keep steelmaking, especially in Port Talbot, the country’s biggest steel plant which employs 4,500 workers.

Mr Javid held “productive “ talks with Tata earlier today, saying that progress was being made.

Earlier, Mr Javid tweeted: “Just held productive meeting with senior Tata executives to discuss UK #steel sales process. Progress is being made.”