Minister grilled over steel help

In an attempt to illustrate the chaos surrounding the liquidation of the Thai-owned SSI plant on Teesside, Anna Soubry, the Government’s Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise told the a Government select committee that she found out SSI had collapsed via social media in her bedroom in Redcar.

However Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove, who challenged the minister during the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee on the UK steel industry said her comments did not describe a minister or Government in control of the industry and there had not been a proactive enough approach to support UK steel production.

She told the committee the situation at SSI had been a ‘nightmare’ in relation to their debt and them not paying bills - which they had not known about previously.

She said they couldn’t have acted quicker, because ‘nobody knew the full extent’ of SSI’s financial problems.

And to reiterate how difficult communication had been surrounding the company’s affairs, she said: “Do you know how people knew that the Thai company had gone into effectively, administration? A tweet was sent out that we happened to get because we were on social media in my bedroom in Redcar. A Tweet!”

During the meeting committee chair, Hartlepool MP Ian Wright, asked her to account for the actions she had taken since trouble in the steel industry first emerged.

She said the Government’s work to combat the global dumping of steel had been unprecedented and conversations had also taken place about energy prices for electricity hungry steel plants.

Using British steel is also a priority, she added, and she had discussed with Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom on how wind turbine blades could be made in the UK.

However despite pledges the Government will ensure more British steel is used in infrastructure projects, she was told during the meeting by select committee member, Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield, that the Hinkley Point nuclear power station plant in Somerset will not accept tenders from British companies.

She said that was a very serious allegation and would look into it urgently.

Her session giving evidence to the select committee comes as the Business Secretary Sajid Javid is calling for an emergency EU meeting to discuss the state of the steel industry and unfair trade practices.

He is in Brussels to raise UK concerns over unfair international trading with the EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Internal Market Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska.

Mr Javid said: “I want to see steel top of the EU agenda.

“We cannot stand by while the steel industry across Europe, not just in the UK, faces such unprecedented challenges.

“There are no straightforward solutions to the complex global challenges but the UK government wants to work with the EU and our European partners to do all we can to support our steel industry.”

Today the Government will also convene a working group of steel industry experts to discuss dumping practices to put forward to the EU.