Bill To save the British steel factory, the law will be made after approval of King | British steel

Proposals to save the scunthorpe blast furnaces of British Steel, have received his royal approval after an extraordinary parliament that is sitting on Saturday.

Emergency legislation that gives the government the power to instruct British steel to keep the factory open, the Commons and Lords passed in a single day without opposition.

Ministers had taken the unusual step to recall the parliament from the Easter recess to sit on Saturday after negotiations with the Chinese owners of British Steel, Jingye, seemed to break down.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, accused the company not to negotiate “in good faith” after it decided to stop buying sufficient raw materials to maintain the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.

He said MPs: “We can’t do it, will not and never remain unemployed while heat from the remaining blast furnaces of the UK seeps without planning, any appropriate process or any respect for the consequences.

“And that’s why I needed colleagues here today.”

But the conservatives said that the government should have acted earlier, with the acting shadow leader of the house, Alex Burghart, who accused ministers of making “a total pig’s breakfast of this entire scheme”.

The Shadow Business Secretary, Andrew Griffith, said that the government was looking for a “blank check”, while the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, claimed that Labor had “failed” a deal she had negotiated with British Steel while he had a business secretary.

But she was unable to provide details about the deal and said that negotiations were still underway when last year’s elections were called, but adding the “would be better” than Reynolds’s plan.

Reynolds opened Saturday’s debate and said that Labor had been working on negotiations with Jingye since the party came to power last July and had offered ‘substantial’ support.

The government had recently offered to buy the necessary raw materials for the blast furnaces, the last primary steel -producing facilities in the UK, but this was a counter -offer from Jingye that demanded ‘an excessive amount’ of support.

Reynolds added: “In the past few days it became clear that Jingye’s intention had to refuse to buy enough raw material to run the blast furnaces – in fact their intention was to cancel and refuse for existing orders.

“The company would therefore irrevocably and one -sided making the primary samples at British Steel.”

While parliamentary members debated the legislation, The Times reported that employees in the Scunthorpe factory had prevented Chinese managers from gaining Jingye access to important areas of the steel factory.

The steel industry published on Saturday gives the government the authority to instruct steel companies in England to keep facilities open, with criminal fines for managers if they do not pay.

Ministers said these measures were needed to keep the scunthorpe blast furnaces open and to protect the primary steel production capacity of the UK and the 3500 jobs involved.

Reynolds said that the emergency legislation was a “proportional and necessary step”, and added that he wanted it to be a “temporary position” with the powers that “is not” every moment longer than necessary “.

In the meantime, Keir Starmer met steel workers in the vicinity of Scunthorpe to discuss his government’s plans for the factory.

The prime minister told them: “You are the people who have maintained this. You and your colleagues have been the backbone of British Staal for years, and it is really important that we recognize that.”

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Saturday’s emergency legislation is short of the complete nationalization of British Staal, and ministers remain hopeful that they can protect private investments to save the factory.

But there is no private company that is willing to invest in British Steel, and the business secretary recognized the commons that public ownership remained the “likely option”.

During Saturday’s debate, the deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, insisted on the government to “show your cojones” and continue by fully nationalizing British Staal “this weekend”.

Various conservative parliament members also spoke for nationalization, while the spokesperson for the liberal democrat Treasury Daisy Cooper said the parliament remembered that it was “absolutely the right thing to do”.

The government was criticized because he acted to save the Scunthorpe factory, but does not take the same action when the Tata Steelworks in Port Talbot was threatened with closure.

The Wales spokesperson, the Liberal Democrats, David Chadwick, said that employees in South Wales “will wonder how this unjust situation could ever take place”.

Earlier, the Minister of Industry, Sarah Jones, said that the different approach was due to the willingness of TATA to invest in Port Talbot, and the changed global circumstances that make it necessary to protect the primary steel production capacity of the UK.

TUC -Secretary -General Paul Nowak welcomed the bill, but insisted on the government to continue.

He said: “Today’s announcement is the first step to ensure that we can modernize steel products in this country and decrease our dependence on foreign import and ensure that we remain competitive on the global stage.

“But the government should not stop there. We must ensure that British steel is used in British infrastructure projects to stimulate the local economies up and down.

“That is how you protect the jobs of steel workers by the transition and put British steel production on a solid foot for the future.”