Labour’s immature trash talking has real consequences for Britain

steel workers on strike
The steel industry will soon join pensioners, households paying higher energy bills and rail communities facing further strike disruption - Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Britain’s remaining steel production plants are at risk and the reports that 2,500 jobs at Scunthorpe could be lost by Christmas will not only cause deep worry to those workers and their families, but should concern the country as a whole for economic and national security reasons.

While British steel production has been hit in recent decades by economic shocks and the growth of cheap steel from China, the last Conservative government fought hard to safeguard the industry and had clear plans to support modern and more environmentally friendly steel production.

We worked with our brilliant and visionary Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, on plans to regenerate the former Redcar steelworks into a modern electric arc furnace, with the planning consent granted earlier this year.

Taking those decisions was not easy, especially when some taxpayer support was needed. But investment in new technology with a clear strategy and a pipeline of infrastructure projects that British-produced steel could support was vital to supporting our economic well being and the levelling up agenda. It was the right thing to do.

Despite Labour boasting of how they would support the steel industry and their questioning when in opposition towards our plans, since winning the general election they’ve gone silent.

Instead of building upon the measures we put in place to back steel production, they’ve spent their first few weeks in office using taxpayers’ hard-earned cash to pay off their trade union friends who are still threatening strike action, taking the winter fuel payment away from 10m pensioners, leaving them to freeze while energy bills rise, and they’ve sent the wrong signals out to industry with new taxes on oil and gas production and the threat of more taxes and red tape to come.

Labour are also reviewing major infrastructure schemes, creating uncertainty over future demands and the raw materials needed.

They could have come into office and prioritised giving certainty for steel production, but have instead decided to spend their first few weeks in office strangling enterprise and sabotaging the prospects for future economic growth.

They promptly found £10bn in public sector pay to appease the trade unions, but have been slow to finalise a £1bn package needed to secure the future of domestic steel production.

Is it any wonder that the uncertainty they have created has led to concerns over the immediate future of steel making and jobs at Scunthorpe, as well as the longer-term plans Ben Houchen and the last Conservative government worked so hard to establish?

Labour’s lack of vision and obsession with immature trash talking is now having real consequences for the British public they are letting down. Labour have spent years promising to protect the steel industry but all they are doing is helping China to dump more steel into the UK and undermine our national security.

Scunthorpe
British Steel is preparing to shut its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe by Christmas - Scott Heppell/REUTERS

The steel industry will soon join pensioners, households paying higher energy bills and rail communities facing further strike disruption as victims of Labour’s broken promises.

Now is the time for the Government to step up – and if they do not then the Conservatives must hold them to account. This issue is so important because the UK cannot drift towards further and deeper reliance on cheap steel imports from China, especially with all of the national security implications that has.

Labour seem to have forgotten that China has taken an adversarial position towards us, with cyber attacks and actions that seek to undermine our democracy and rule of law. I introduced the National Security Bill into Parliament to increase protections and make it harder for hostile state actors to interfere in our country.

But if Labour fail our steel workers and let our steel production collapse, then they will give China greater influence over our economic well being, a stranglehold over our economic security and put our national security at risk.