The scramble to save British Steel

争相拯救英国钢铁业

Today in Focus

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2025-04-15

22 分钟
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What does the British Steel crisis reveal about the UK’s critical infrastructure? Jasper Jolly reports. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, why the government has decided to save British steel.

  • We meet under exceptional circumstances to take exceptional action in what are exceptional times.

  • MPs were supposed to be on their Easter holidays this Saturday when they were recalled to parliament for an emergency sitting.

  • As we seek to pass emergency legislation that is unequivocally in our national interest.

  • Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, introduced a bill to save British steel's plant in Skullthorpe,

  • the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel in England.

  • Jasper Jolly, a financial correspondent at The Guardian, was listening into the historic sitting.

  • I think it shows the severity of the situation or how seriously the government was taking it.

  • Parliament's only been recalled for a Saturday sitting six times

  • since the end of the Second World War and the last time was the Folklones War.

  • As MPs debated in Westminster, 170 miles north in Skullthorpe, tensions were building.

  • Meanwhile in Skullthorpe there were parades in the town,

  • there was a parade on the pitch at Skullthorpe United's home game that Saturday, but at the plant there was also drama.

  • From what we understand, Jingye officials, so officials from the owners of the plant,

  • turned up at the plant and as far as we know they were denied entry and police were actually called.

  • All in all, it was a very dramatic Saturday.

  • This really is the most power that the government has had over the steel industry since 1988,

  • which was when Margaret Thatcher privatised it.

  • It's a really remarkable moment.