Steel Crisis: Emergency Commons Debate

The Commons is set for an emergency debate on the future of the UK's steel industry, as the Business Secretary raises the prospect of Government help.

MPs will have up to three hours on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, after shadow business secretary Angela Eagle secured an urgent slot in the chamber.

The UK steel industry as a whole, including the plant at Port Talbot in South Wales, is losing £1m a day, with significant losses over the past year.

Labour has warned the industry is "hanging by a thread" as the search begins for a buyer of Tata Steel's UK business, with "many tens" of firms to be contacted in the hope of saving thousands of jobs.

The group's executive director Koushik Chatterjee has already said they hope to sell the business as a whole, rather than splitting it into parts.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the Government is ready to help, including "looking at the possibility of co-investing with a buyer on commercial terms".

Labour MP for Aberavon Stephen Kinnock, who has been leading the battle to save British steel, said the Government needed to be clearer about what "co-investing" would involve.

He said: "Sajid Javid's out-of-the-blue reference to 'co-investment' in the chamber yesterday is further evidence of the fact that this shambolic Government is making policy on the hoof.

"It is high time that Mr Javid makes a clear and comprehensive written statement, explaining what the Government is or is not prepared to do, in terms of intervention.

"The continued speculation and uncertainty is not helpful to the sales process. It seems that Business Department officials were as bemused as we are by their Secretary of State's comments yesterday."

There has been good news for Tata's Scunthorpe plant, however, which is included in a sale of Tata's Long Products business.

Investment firm Greybull Capital has signed an agreement to buy the business, which also covers two mills in Teesside, a design consultancy in York and associated distribution facilities, an engineering workshop in Workington and a mill in France.

Scunthorpe's union members are voting on whether to accept a 3% pay cut and reduced pension contributions for a year in order to get the deal through. The result is due next week.

If accepted, the deal will safeguard thousands of jobs and will provide some hope that the other parts of Tata's steel business can be saved.

At least two firms are understood to have expressed interest in the other plants, including Liberty House.