Good morning. On Saturday, parliament passed a special measures bill that grants the government emergency powers to take control of British Steel after its Chinese owner, Jingye, turned down state support to keep the Scunthorpe plant operating over the coming weeks, placing thousands of jobs at risk. Scunthorpe contains Britain’s last two functioning blast furnaces and produces 95% of the steel used for the country’s railway system.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, has been engaged in urgent discussions with Jingye for months, and previously succeeded in averting a closure before Christmas. However, last month Jingye warned that the “hugely challenging circumstances the business faces”, worsened by Donald Trump’s tariffs and environmental regulations, would result in the plant’s closure.
