British steel must be saved: after weeks of unsuccessful negotiations with the Chinese company Jingye, owner of British Steel, the government of Labor Keir Starmer made the very unusual decision to recall the parliamentarians – deputies and Lords – vacation for an exceptional sale in Westminster, Saturday April 12.
They only had a few hours to discuss and adopt emergency legislation entrusting to the government momentary control of the SCUTHORPE steelworks, in northern Lincolnshire, in order to avoid its final closure. The latter would have led to the direct loss of 2,700 jobs, thousands of additional indirect jobs, but would also have signed the disappearance of the last British primary steel manufacturing site (from iron ore and coke), essential for construction, rail or shipyards.
This perspective was unthinkable for Labor Keir Starmer, while the United Kingdom needs steel to rearm itself, and to regain its strategic autonomy, faced with a Donald Trump determined to upset the rules of international trade and turn away from Europe. “It is the future of British steel that is at stake. It is part of our national history, it is essential to our future” said the leader on Friday April 11, when reconving the Parliament for the weekend-for the sixth time only since the Second World War.
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Source: Lemonde