Video: Hundreds join steelworkers in march through Scunthorpe

Politicians and union leaders joined the demonstration, chanting “Save Our Steel”, and calling for more support for the town’s steel industry.

Hundreds of jobs are set to be lost at the plant, with thousands of redundancies announced in recent weeks as firms struggle with high energy costs and business rates, as well as cheap Chinese imports.

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the steelworkers’ union Community, said: “Today was all about showing the spirit and the values of steelworkers and the clear determination people have to save Scunthorpe steel-making.

“It’s what I learnt when I first joined the steel industry and my union - we stick together and we look after each other and that was clear for all to see today.

“Steelworkers are passionate about their industry and their communities. They want steel to have a future and that needs the Government to act.

“Scunthorpe has steel in its DNA, it runs right through the community. A perfect storm is hitting the UK steel industry and at the moment Scunthorpe is in the eye of that storm.

“Steel dumping, high energy costs and high business rates are all putting steel jobs at risk.

“Steel is a vital foundation industry and is important not just to the North Lincolnshire economy but to the entire UK. That’s why we want to see action from local and central government to help to save our steel.”

Mr Rickhuss said companies such as Tata should honour their “moral and social obligations” to communities where they are based.

He added: “Recent press comments that Tata Steel has no future interest in Long Products only heaps more worry and stress upon steelworkers and their families.

“Tata Steel needs to show that it will be a responsible seller of the business and that it won’t just abandon the steelworkers of Scunthorpe and the rest of its Long Products business.”

Unions were critical of the outcome of a meeting in Brussels yesterday, attended by the Business Secretary Sajid Javid, to discuss the steel crisis.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “Steel communities across the UK were looking for urgent action, but instead got the promise of more summits and more meetings all which could prove to be too little too late for the tens of thousands whose livelihoods depend on steel.

“Sajid Javid should not fool himself that it’s ‘job done’. A central part of the UK’s economy is on knife-edge and it will be the action he takes over the coming days to save a world class industry on which he will judged.”

In the Commons, shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said the Government must “stop hiding behind the EU” and do more to tackle the root causes of the crisis.

She called on Sajid Javid to “get a grip” as she claimed no action had been agreed that will make a “material difference to our steel industry now”.

The Business Secretary hit back, insisting the Conservative administration was “taking this issue seriously” and that Labour “could be a lot more constructive on this issue”.