“Scunthorpe without steel would not be Scunthorpe,” MP says
A bill to nationalise British Steel has now passed the third reading stage in the House of Commons
“Scunthorpe without steel would not be Scunthorpe,” Martin Vickers has said in the latest stage of the progression of the bill to enable nationalisation of British Steel. It has now passed the third reading stage in the House of Commons, and will go to the House of Lords.
Since April 2025, the Government has directed the operations of the company, but Jingye Group has remained the owner of British Steel. Negotiations to resolve this with Jingye have not been successful.
Last month, the Prime Minister announced a bill would be brought forward to enable nationalisation. This is subject to a public interest test, which involves consideration of maintaining critical national infrastructure.
The third reading of the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill saw two days of debate in the Commons chamber, with Mr Vickers (Conservative – Brigg and Immingham), and Lee Pitcher (Labour – Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme), making interventions. The bill will not return to the Commons, unless the House of Lords passes amendments to it.
Mr Vickers reminded fellow MPs Scunthorpe steelworks partly lies in his constituency and consequently, hundreds of its workers and hundreds more in the supply chain are his constituents. With that in mind, he made it known several weeks ago he would support the bill.
“It could have been improved, and the Opposition tabled some perfectly sensible amendments, which I supported. However, having got to this stage, I think it is only right that we give our full support to the business and, more importantly, to the workers employed there.”
“Scunthorpe without steel would not be Scunthorpe,” he later stated. “As a resident of Grimsby, I have witnessed what can happen to a town when it loses its core industry – in the case of Grimsby, it was of course the deep-sea fishing industry – and when that happens, it takes about two generations for the local economy to be able to sustain the jobs that are necessary. On that basis, I will certainly be supporting the bill.”
He said the reality of the move is it is a restructuring of British Steel, and the current situation with the Government directing the company and Jingye as the owners “is clearly unsustainable”. Mr Vickers said he was reassured by ministerial reference in the first day of the debate to seeking private sector involvement.
“I have met two or three groups that are interested in investing in the sector,” he said, adding that he and Sir Nic Dakin (Labour – Scunthorpe) “had quite an interesting evening a few weeks ago” listening to “quite an ambitious plan for steel”. The Brigg and Immingham MP did sound a note of caution though, suggesting there was not 100 per cent clarity earlier in the debate from a minister on the continuation of blast furnace production.
“I know the situation, and I recognise that a long-term move to electric arc furnaces is perhaps the only way to sustain the industry and the jobs in Scunthorpe. So I await developments with interest,” he said, but the bill was “a sensible way forward” at this stage.
“This debate is not only about a steelworks; it is about whether Britain is prepared to act like a serious industrial nation again,” said Mr Pitcher. “For too long, we have been too casual about losing the things that make us strong: factories, skills, supply chains, ownership and industrial capacity.”
A number of amendments were proposed, particularly by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Most sought to add extra limitations on use of Government powers to intervene and take into public ownership steel industry businesses.
Mr Pitcher said he felt some amendments put forward “seem to start from the idea that Government intervention is dangerous. I disagree: the danger is delay and timidity.”
The Labour MP also paid tribute to British Steel’s longest-serving employee, Martin Welch, noting he had worked there for 48 years. He praised the steelworker’s “skill, graft, and loyalty to an industry that has helped to build this country” and his championing of safety for co-workers.
“When we debate steel, we are debating people like Martin, families like his, and communities whose working lives, pride and futures are bound up with the future of British steel.”