Emergency legislation giving government power to instruct British Steel to keep plant open passed unopposed
Proposals to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces have been granted royal assent after an extraordinary parliament sitting on Saturday.
Emergency legislation giving the government the power to instruct British Steel to keep the plant open passed the Commons and Lords in a single day unopposed.
Continue reading...Union leaders have welcomed moves towards public ownership but it is not an auspicious environment for nationalisation
Blast furnaces have been making steel in Britain for 300 years, ever since they helped start the Industrial Revolution. This weekend, parliament will sit for the first Saturday in decades as it tries to keep the last two furnaces running for a bit longer.
Keir Starmer has recalled MPs to discuss emergency powers to direct steel companies, including British Steel’s Scunthorpe steelworks, to “preserve capability and ensure public safety”. The move would be short of nationalisation, but it would give the government more influence on the steel industry than at any point since Margaret Thatcher.
Continue reading...Business select committee chair joins calls for Scunthorpe steelworks to be taken into public ownership
The government is under mounting pressure to nationalise British Steel if crunch talks aimed at a rescue deal fail, as the chair of the influential business and trade select committee added his voice to those calling for the Scunthorpe steelworks to be taken into public ownership.
Jingye, the Chinese owner of the company, and the UK government were not able to reach a deal on Thursday to supply the Scunthorpe plant with crucial raw materials, with talks expected to restart on Friday.
Continue reading...The PM doubled down on his insistence the government won’t change its fiscal rules, describing them as ‘ironclad’ and ‘non-negotiable’
One person probably more enthusiastic than most about the prospect of Universal opening a theme park in the UK is the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey. He is a great fan of outdoor activity-related photocalls, and he’s been at it again today, and the Gloucester Ski and Snowboarding Centre in Matson, Gloucestershire.
Almost 40 MPs and peers have signed a letter organised by Jeremy Corbyn calling for an independent inquiry into the government’s role in the war in Gaza.
Many people believe the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law.
These charges will not go away until there is a comprehensive, public, independent inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth.
Last month, I wrote to the Prime Minister calling for an independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Today, more than 30 MPs have supported that call.
Continue reading...Prime minister says ‘no one is pretending tariffs are good news’ during speech on car industry
In his Times article Keir Starmer describes the Trump tariffs as “the beginning of a new era”. He has been saying this at least since last Thursday, when he spoke about the tariffs at a Q&A with journalists at Labour’s local elections campaign launch. The speech this afternoon is being described as the PM’s most considered response so far to the global economic turmoil generated by the tariffs, but we have already heard quite a lot from Starmer on this topic already, in a Sunday Telegraph article yesterday and in No 10 briefings on the calls he had with world leaders about the situation over the weekend.
Is there a coherent strategy? On the basis of what he has said so far, there are at least five elements in the mix at the moment.
John Ryan is a local hero and we are truly humbled that he has publicly endorsed Reform UK ahead of May’s elections in Doncaster.
Continue reading...PM told to be as robust as Canada with the US president as the UK stages last-ditch talks to strike trade deal
Keir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy.
British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling “liberation day” on Wednesday. The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US.
Continue reading...British steelmakers lobby for government to set limit to compete with France and Germany
The British steel industry has called for capped energy prices for heavy industry in order to match France and Germany, as companies grapple with the fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war.
UK Steel, a lobby group, has proposed the government set a maximum price for energy through a contract for difference (CfD), before an announcement of a new steel strategy.
Continue reading...Super Members Council says summit may sway US president on tariffs on Australian industry after seeing scale of investment in US
Australia’s $2.8tn superannuation industry will bolster the Albanese government’s bid to secure an exemption from the Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports this week.
A delegation of Australia’s largest funds will meet with US government officials from Monday, as part of a four-day summit designed to improve awareness of the industry’s long-term contributions to the US economy and its plans to more than double investment.
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Continue reading...Move allows government to act on millions of dollars in debts owed by GFG Alliance and secure future of mid-north operations
The Whyalla steelworks has been placed into administration after the South Australian government rushed legislation through parliament and pledged “one of the most comprehensive industry support packages that this nation has ever seen”.
Jim Chalmers, saying on Wednesday that securing the future for steel in Whyalla was important, said the federal government would have more to say on the matter “in due course”.
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Continue reading...US president’s announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of schedule
The government has rushed forward plans for a £2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday – several weeks before schedule – in a sign of how Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth.
Continue reading...Peter Navarro’s comments to US media, which follow president’s 25% tariff announcement, were shared on an official Trump administration account on X
Donald Trump’s trade adviser claims Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector with its imports of aluminium, as the Albanese government scrambles to try to secure exemptions to the president’s 25% tariffs on metal.
Anthony Albanese said he was still hopeful the local steel and aluminium industry could be spared from the tariff regime, even after escalating comments from the Trump administration criticising current trade arrangements with allies, including Australia.
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Continue reading...Danny Kruger says those who backed the bill did so under false premise after change to safeguards announced
There will be two urgent questions after 12.30pm: on the Clonoe inquest, which found that the SAS acted unlawfully when they killed four IRA terrorists in an ambush in 1992; and then another on the US steel tariffs.
A Northern Ireland Office minister will respond to the first, and a business minister will respond to the second.
Continue reading...Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy
Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.
The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.
Continue reading...Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group
Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.
Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.
Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.
Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.
Continue reading...US president accused of ‘shifting goalposts’ by premier of Ontario for adding further tariffs on top of existing metal duties
Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.
The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.
Continue reading...Leaders praise each other at White House but president warns Japan could face tariffs if it doesn’t cut US trade deficit to zero
The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.
Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.
Continue reading...Suspension of executive order until 18 June gives courts time to review steelmakers’ legal challenge
The Biden administration has delayed until June an order for Nippon Steel to abandon its $14.9bn bid for US Steel, potentially giving the companies some time to revive the politically contentious deal.
Joe Biden blocked the acquisition on national security grounds on 3 January and the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said this week the proposed deal had received a “thorough analysis” by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Continue reading...Losses quadruple from a year earlier after decision to end primary steelmaking in south Wales with loss of 2,500 jobs
Losses at Tata Steel’s UK operations ballooned to £1.12bn due to the cost of closing Port Talbot’s two blast furnaces.
Accounts for the Indian-owned company show that pre-tax losses quadrupled from £279m to £1.12bn in the year to the end of March due to restructuring costs associated with the closure of its blast furnaces and coke ovens at the site in south Wales.
Continue reading...Acquisition of Pittsburgh-based steel producer by Japanese company has faced opposition from steelworkers and Biden
Donald Trump said on Monday that he intends to block Japan’s Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid to acquire US Steel in a move that will fuel further fears about a global trade war when the Republican returns to the White House next month.
“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan” the US president-elect said in a statement on Monday, adding: “Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST! As President, I will block this deal from happening. Buyer Beware!!!”
Continue reading...Confirmation follows progress at talks over government support for switch to less polluting technology
The owners of British Steel are to keep the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe site running past Christmas amid talks over government support for a switch to less polluting technology.
The government is thought to be considering aid for British Steel at the same level or even higher than the £500m pledged to Tata Steel, which closed its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot in September. However, no decisions on the shape of a package have been made.
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