British Steel’s future ‘hangs in the balance’, Sir Keir Starmer says

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Government aims to pass emergency legislation in one day to protect the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe as its future “hangs in the balance”.

The Prime Minister said the Government will “keep all options on the table” amid calls for nationalisation and did not answer a question about what the potential cost of plans to protect the steelworks would be.

Both the Commons and the Lords will return to Parliament for a rare Saturday sitting to debate a law aimed at securing the future of the plant in North Lincolnshire.

Jingye, the Chinese owner of British Steel, plans to close the blast furnaces and switch to a greener form of production.

Speaking from Downing Street, Sir Keir said: “As Prime Minister, I will always act in the national interest to protect British jobs and British workers.

“This afternoon, the future of British Steel hangs in the balance.

“Jobs, investment, growth, our economic and national security are all on the line.”

He said that while the UK is facing a “new era of global instability”, concerns about the plant and talks to protect it have been going on “for years”.

“This moment could have happened at any time, but it has happened now, and I will not stand by. There is no time to waste,” he said.

“So we are recalling Parliament tomorrow for a Saturday sitting. We will pass emergency legislation in one day to give the Business Secretary the powers to do everything possible to stop the closure of these blast furnaces.

“And as I have said, we will keep all options on the table.”

The Commons Saturday sitting will begin at 11am, when MPs will debate “legislative proposals to ensure the continued operation of British Steel blast furnaces is safeguarded”, according to the office of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

The House of Lords will sit from midday.

In an indication of how seriously the Government is taking the issue, this is the first time Parliament has been recalled to sit on a Saturday since 1982, when MPs returned after the Falklands War began.

Other significant recalls during recent years included a midweek sitting during the summer recess in August 2021 to debate the evacuation from Afghanistan.

Published: 11/04/2025 by Radio NewsHub