A Sky News host hit out at a minister after he failed to guarantee that the furnaces at British Steel’s Scunthorpe site will be saved despite emergency legislation passed over the weekend.
Presenter Leah Boleto asked Treasury minister James Murray whether he thought his answer was “satisfactory” to the thousands of people worried that they might lose their jobs if the plant closes.
The Labour minister said the Government was doing “everything we can” to get iron ore and coking coal to the plant to keep the furnaces burning before it is too late. He confirmed the materials needed at the British Steel works were in the UK but could not “categorically say” that it would be enough.
But Sky News‘ Boleto brutally responded: “Do you think that’s a satisfactory answer to our viewers today that might be affected by jobs if that furnace goes out? You can’t give us categorically an answer that it will continue to burn well.”
It comes after Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed the government is taking control of British Steel to prevent its Chinese owner Jingye shutting down the Scunthorpe plant. MPs were called back to Parliament for a rare Saturday sitting to pass legislation to try to save Britain’s last virgin steelmaking facility and avoid around 2,700 jobs being lost. Ministers are now scrambling to keep the two furnaces, nicknamed Queen Anne and Queen Bess, burning as if they cool too much, it will not be financially viable to save them.
Mr Murray was told “this was his moment” to reassure the worried community in Scunthorpe. But, asked if he could “categorically say” that the furnaces will continue to burn, he only said: “I can categorically say that we as government are doing everything we can to make sure they continue. We are a government of industry.”
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Pressed about the fears of job losses, he could not guarantee their jobs were safe. He said: “We’re doing everything we can to support Scunthorpe… We have to make sure that we get those raw materials into the blast furnaces. They’re in the UK and they’re nearby. There are limits to what I can say, because there are commercial operations going on here.” He said without the government’s emergency intervention over the weekend, the furnaces might not have had a chance to be saved.
Confronted over whether his answers were “satisfactory” to worried viewers, Mr Murray said: “I hope that anyone listening to this programme this morning will understand that I am giving a direct answer and being upfront about what we’re doing. I have to be straightforward about what the challenges are that we face, but I also need to make clear what our commitment is, what our commitment to our community is.”
He was asked if he could have acted sooner, with unions having been raising urgent issues for weeks. Mr Murray said the Labour government has been negotiating with Jingye since the election. He said the Chinese firm had been accelerating plans to close the Scunthorpe site in recent days, which triggered the emergency action over the weekend.
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