UK Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2015-09-17
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas Dakin (Labour, Centre-left): Let me join everybody in paying tribute to the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Anna Turley) and others in securing this timely and important debate. While we are on tributes, it is important that I pay tribute to everybody who is working in the steel industry across the UK, particularly those in my constituency. A number of things have happened this summer: job losses in south Yorkshire; job losses in south Wales; the withdrawal of Klesch from the interest in Tata; and the struggle for survival at SSI in Teesside. All that bears witness to a fact: we have, as UK Steel, a sober, understated organisation, says in the preface to its letter to the Minister, a "Steel Sector Crisis". Sadly, that is where we are today. We are facing questions about how we ensure the future of this vital, strategic, foundation industry for the UK. My hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright), who chairs the Select Committee, rightly said that this should be about the future—we can build on the past but this is about the future, because that is what matters. No modern economy looking to the future can go forward with confidence about this industry unless it has that at its heart That is why my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), in an impassioned and incredibly moving contribution to this debate, was right to say that we know all the arguments, because they have been rehearsed time and again in this stadium—[Laughter.] It is not exactly a stadium, but we have built many stadiums with steel and I am sure there will be much steel in here. We have rehearsed those arguments time and again in this Chamber and in this Palace of Westminster. We know the arguments. We know what this is about. We know that it is about energy prices, business taxes, capital investment, procurement policy, Chinese imports and the strength of the pound. We know what the context is, and we can go round and round in all that detail, but what signally matters at the moment is the political will to do something. This is about politicians—us, across this House—people outside this House and, most importantly, Governments, be they the Scottish Government or the UK Government. It is about the decisions they make on procurement, be it procuring steel for the Forth road bridge, sourcing new auxiliary ships for the Royal Air Force through Korea rather than through the UK or deciding whether we buy our new police cars from Peugeot or from the UK. There are procurement decisions where the Government can step up to the mark; this is about looking forward, and we need to make sure that we have the political will That is why I asked the Prime Minister at last week’s Prime Minister’s questions to have a steel summit. A steel summit is about saying to everybody that steel is crucial for the UK and it matters, now and in the future. That is why the Prime Minister and this Government need to step up to the plate, and put together a steel summit and respond to the feeling both inside and outside this House that that is important. The Prime Minister gave us warm words. To be fair to him, I believe he does care about the steel industry and he does always give us warm words. For the first time since I was elected in 2010, we have in this Minister a Minister for the steel industry who cares about the steel industry. She has shown honest endeavour and I believe she will continue to do so. But warm words and honest endeavour in themselves will not take us where we need to be. We need clear actions, movements and directions in the future to make the future bright and bold My constituency has 4,000 jobs in the local steel industry, with people directly employed, and 25,000 jobs dependent on steel—that picture is magnified across the country. Steel is a crucial industry, for now and for the future. I call on the Minister, who is very good, to move from being very good to being exceptional, to make a difference and to respond to the desire for a steel summit by letting us have one. That will allow us to send the message to investors looking to make a difference to our steel industry and work alongside us in partnership that this Government will stand up for steel and will make sure that steel is there for the future, so that we have a bright future and we can be as proud of our steel industry in 50 years’ time looking back as we are now looking back at the past 100 years of our steel industry. This Minister is going to step up to the mark and deliver for this nation on the steel industry