The Business Secretary refused to guarantee that the British steel plant in Scunthorpe will get enough raw materials in time to run its important ovens.
Jonathan Reynolds also said he would not sell the business to another Chinese owner because he indicated that there is now a ‘high trust’ for Chinese businesses to meet before they will be allowed to invest in sensitive British industries.
The Government on Saturday advanced emergency legislation to take control of British Steel, with Mr. Reynolds who warned MPs that once the ovens are out of the raw materials, they can never be switched back.
A day later, he said that he would not ‘make my situation or the situation of the country more difficult’ by commenting on specific commercial details.
He told the BBCs Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “If we did not act, the ovens were gone; Steel production in the UK, primary steel production, would have gone.
“So we gave ourselves the opportunity; We have control over the site. My officials are now on the premises to give us the chance to do so. ‘
He also revealed that ministers decided to act when it appeared that the Chinese owner of the company, Jingye, not just stopping the purchase of new raw materials, but that he began to sell the supplies it already had.
But Mr. Reynolds refused to accuse the company of deliberately sabotaging the business based on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying that he “did not accuse the Chinese state of being directly behind it”.
However, he assumed that there was now a ‘high -trust bar’ that would be allowed before the Chinese investment in ‘sensitive’ areas such as steel production.
The Reformation of British leader Nigel Farage said he was “100 percent sure” that the CCP Jingye ordered to buy British Steel to close the business, but he provided no evidence, with “intuition”.
Mr. Reynolds also admitted that the government expected to lose money on British Steel, losing about £ 233m a year. But he added that the collapse of the business would cost “more than £ 1bn” easily.
The Mr. Reynolds on Saturday accused Jingye of planning to ‘irrevocably and unilaterally’ the ovens by hungering them from raw materials – because it appeared that police reportedly called that the company’s drivers had not entered the premises.
Later, in a surprising step, the prime minister met with steel workers near Scunthorpe to discuss the plans.
He told them, “You are the people who kept it going. You and your colleagues were the backbone of British steel for years, and it is very important that we acknowledge it.”
Although the new law no longer stops nationalization, the government admitted that it was “likely” that British steel should be taken in public ownership, after Sir Keir Starmer warned that the UK’s economic and national security was “on the right path”.
