Starmer’s British Steel Screw Up Is Blowing Up In His Face!

Right, so Labour have saved British Steel they are cheering, having swiftly flown into action by recalling parliament on a Saturday to apparently do so, and for the amount of MPs posting on social media about having worked on a Saturday as if this is something transformative, as if they’ve managed to secure world peace by putting in a bit of overtime has been an absolutely pathetic display.
The simple fact of the matter is, they didn’t save British Steel. For all of the cheerleading they are putting on, they have now legislated not to renationalise British Steel as was being widely mooted as a possibility in the media, instead, they’ve done something incredibly stupid. What they have done is legislate to criminalise British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye, if they shut down, with the government now saying they will pay Jingye’s running costs to help them keep running, Jingye losing something in the region of £700,000 a day on the plant right now and with Labour’s manifesto only pledging £2.5bn towards saving the steel industry, that won’t last five minutes as these costs rapidly eat it away.
All of this has come though amid a backdrop of Starmer having let the even larger steelworks in Port Talbot close and ignoring the plight of the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, which is experiencing the exact same situation there as Scunthorpe, Grangemouth being Scotland’s last major oil refinery, but that’s Scotland and Port Talbot was Wales and Scunthorpe is England and with Starmer issuing yet another tin eared idiotic statement off the back of this mess he’s made, all he’s done is prove he won’t put this country and its needs and its infrastructure first at all, because if one of his wealthy donors or backers isn’t making money out of it, then it isn’t working for him, sell out that he and his party are.
Right, so in the last 24 hours Keir Starmer’s Labour government have rushed through emergency legislation allegedly to "save" British Steel. Ministers patted themselves on the back, we worked on a Saturday, you should cheer us they thought smugly and much of the media, though not all, hailed it as a victory for British industry. But beneath the self-congratulation lies a damning truth: Labour had the power to fully renationalise the Scunthorpe steelworks—a move that would have secured its future in the national interest, steel a major component not just in infrastructure but in defence, which Starmer always seems to be all about, but he’s either missed the trick here or thinks the stunt he’s pulled is good enough—yet chose instead to prop up its Chinese owners, Jingye, under threat of criminalisation if the furnaces don’t stay on.
This was not some 3D chess move of industrial strategy but a half-measure, a halfwit measure even, a political sleight of hand that exposed Labour’s timidity and expose it is no longer a Labour Party at all. Worse still, it revealed that renationalisation was always possible—just as easy as the coercive measures Starmer opted for—yet Labour refused to take that step. In doing so, they left the door wide open for Nigel Farage to claim the mantle of economic patriotism, calling for full renationalisation, getting the media attention, even though he’s only jumped on the Green Party’s bandwagon, who have been calling for this, along with renationalisation of energy, rail and more for years. While Labour has failed to act decisively on steel, they have still done something, which is more than they did for the steelworks in Port Talbot and thew oil refinery right now in Grangemouth and that hasn’t been missed either.
So what has Labour done exactly then Damo? Well the government’s emergency legislation forces Jingye to keep the Scunthorpe plant open, backed by public money subsidies, under pain of criminal penalties if they refuse. The Chinese owners must keep the plant open, we foot the bill for the running costs, Jingye apparently losing almost three quarters of a million a day. This is not nationalisation but a hollow knockoff made to resemble nationalisation—a policy that maintains private ownership while socialising the risk. The move has been framed as necessary to protect jobs and supply chains, which it will do for now at least, yet it does nothing to address the fundamental instability of private ownership in a critical industry that we cannot get by without. We need our own steel manufacture, relying on important leaves everything from critical infrastructure to defence completely at the whims of the markets. That is hellishly dangerous and irresponsible.
It's also incompetent. If the government can legislate to force Jingye to keep the plant open, it could just as easily have legislated to take it back into public hands. The legal mechanism is identical; the political will was simply absent. Instead, Labour has chosen to funnel public money into a loss-making enterprise, whih it could take control of and run as a non profit, in the national interest, while leaving control in the hands of a foreign corporation—one now vilified in the British press as a villain for considering the rational capitalist decision to cut its losses.
The attacks on labour have come for both the right reasons and the wrong ones. GB News, GBeebies, ever the bastion of economic illiteracy, has framed the debate around cost, sneering at Rachel Reeves with the question: “Where’s the money coming from then?" That old chestnut, when the reality is that a currency-issuing government like ours is not constrained by the revenue it takes via taxation, otherwise there would never always be money for war would there? Of course Reeves couldn’t answer that because she’s as party to economic illiteracy as anyone, so could hardly tell the truth, if she even knew it herself. If the political will existed, the plant could have been renationalised at no net cost to the public, with the asset returning to state hands. Instead, Labour has opted for a policy that keeps British Steel in Chinese ownership while making the British public pay for its survival. And they pat themselves on the back for this.
The most galling aspect of all of this is it has proven the arguments for renationalisation of once upon a time state assets. Starmer’s actions prove renationalisation was always feasible. If the state can just pass laws to compel a private company to operate against its own financial interests, it can pass laws to take that company back into public ownership.
The precedent for this already actually exists and as ridiculous as this sounds, it demonstrates Labour are now to the right of the Tories on something like Renationalisation. In 2021, the Conservative government renationalised Sheffield Forgemasters, placing it under the control of the Ministry of Defence, who have retained ownership of the company ever since. Far from collapsing, the firm has thrived—launching a brand new apprenticeship scheme for 21 apprentices in its brand new state of the art facility, so they’ve been expanding, and little wonder as they have secured new contracts including one to produce nuclear reactor parts from 2026 through to 2050, creating some 3000 jobs as it has done so.
It is utterly damning. The Tories, of all people, the party of privatisation, had no qualms about taking a strategic industry into state control when it was needed and it hurts me deeply to give them any props ever, but they renationalised something and it worked and not enough is made of it, that arguments made by those of us who have always championed renationalisation and the reversal of Thatcherite destruction of infrastructure and manufacturing is critical to economic prosperity and security.
Starmer’s Labour, meanwhile, has lurched to their right, refusing to do the same for British Steel, whilst acting like they have. This is not pragmatism,it is incompetence and cowardice—a refusal to break from neoliberal orthodoxy even when the alternative is staring them in the face.
The timing of Labour’s aggressive stance towards Jingye though is also rather suspicious. As Donald Trump escalates his trade war with China, Starmer’s government has chosen this moment to strongarm a Chinese-owned company. So is this really all about saving British jobs, or is it about aligning with Washington’s anti-China rhetoric and kissing Trump’s Cheeto dusted posterior? It’s a valid question, especially given the apparent news that Liberal Democrat MP Wra Hobhouse has been barred from entering Hong Kong to visit family, a move that could easily be seen as retaliatory and Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey has kicked off about this to David Lammy today. If the UK is determined to provoke China, it might as well have gone all the way and renationalised. Instead, Labour has settled for a policy that appears to have antagonised China while leaving British Steel in Chinese hands.
Labour’s selective interventionism also reeks of political favouritism and this is causing real ructions. Six months ago, the party stood by as Tata Steel shuttered Port Talbot’s blast furnaces, sacrificing thousands of Welsh jobs, as it moves to electric arc furnaces which won’t come online until 2028. The consequences for a town built around the steelworks have been devastating. This is a town that is now grappling with economic devastation, and Plaid Cymru has accused Labour of deliberate neglect, contrasting its inaction in Wales with its haste to save Scunthorpe, England comes first, Wales comes second.
The same double standard applies to Grangemouth, Scotland’s critical oil refinery. The SNP has rightly pointed out that the plant—which employs more people than Scunthorpe’s steelworks do and forms a larger share of Scotland’s economy—faces imminent closure, yet Labour has dismissed calls for intervention, claiming it is "not the same situation" and have bunged £200m at the plant in a bid to offset criticism, rather than being directed to any specific use and it would be remiss of me to not mention at this point that Starmer has just found another £450m to send to Ukraine, because he’s basically set up a standing order at this point to keep funnelling cash to Zelensky on a monthly basis. But coming back to the case of Scunthorpe versus Grangemouth, the hypocrisy is glaring: if steel is a national strategic asset, so is energy infrastructure and going Green is not 100% possible at this point, Starmer’s green plans, GB Energy have already been exposed as a con, its just another private equity vehicle and so all in all Labour’s refusal to act suggests that jobs in England, in Scunthorpe, matter more than those in Wales or Scotland.
Not in any way alleviating or correcting those criticisms, or course Keir Starmer has made an ill advised statement on matters, that has gone down like a lead balloon:
‘Today, my government has stepped in to save British Steel. We are acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers, and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry. Delivering security and renewal for working people is at the heart of my Plan for Change.
This government is turning the page on a decade of decline, where our manufacturing heartlands were hollowed out by the previous government.
In recent weeks alone, we have announced the expansion of Heathrow airport and the building of the biggest theme park in Europe in Bedford. We are reforming our planning rules to build 1.5 million homes, and the infrastructure the nation desperately needs. New roads, railways, schools, hospitals, grids and reservoirs. British steel will be the backbone as we get Britain building once more.
This is a government of industry. That’s why we’ve secured a better deal for the workers of Port Talbot. It’s why we fought to secure the future of Harland & Wolff. It’s why we’ve pledged £200 million to Grangemouth. Our industry is the pride of our history – and I want it to be our future too.
A secure future. A Britain rebuilt with British steel, in the national interest.’
You saved British Steel for a Chinese company. You would have saved those jobs for the long term into the future, if you had renationalised. You’ve caused by the look of things a diplomatic balls up with China over it. You’ve abandoned workers in Scotland and Wales by choice when you could and should be renationalising there and there is still time to correct course here. You point out all of the infrastructure we rely on steel for, yet we don’t have it under state control in the name of national security. You cheer about a theme park, which shows how desperate you are for an economic victory, that has come about more by luck than judgement, you cheer about airport expansions which are unwelcome and unwanted and all of these are bonuses economically for the south east at the expense of other parts of the country. You’ve one nothing for workers at Port Talbot because it is shut! You’ve bunged money to Grangemouth when their future remains bleak in the hope they’ll shut up and go away, as for Harland and Wolff, the shipbuilders, well having come from that same background myself, in shiprepair, you need decent steel, and you won’t nationalise it in the national interest despite having the gall to say we’re doing what we’ve done in the national interest! You are such a God damned liar and somehow despite thinking I cannot despise this man any more than I already do, he manages to find it in me.
Labour’s handling of British Steel is just another in an ever growing list of its broader failures in government. It had the chance to renationalise a vital industry, securing jobs and supply chains for the long term. It could and should have gone further, with Port Talbot and Grangemouth, just as the Tories did with Sheffield Forgemasters, the Tories for heavens sake, but instead, Starmer chose a stopgap measure that leaves steel in private hands, dependent on state subsidies, and vulnerable to future crises.
By refusing to take this step, Starmer has ceded the argument to Farage most prominently, the Greens who have stood on this platform a lot longer and would actually do it, if you trust Farage, you’re as bad as those who still trust Starmer, who rightly argue that essential industries should be under public control. Decades of ever more expensive, worsening services have proven privatisation failed, but for as long as politicians are in the pockets of the same people in control of those industries, it won’t change. Worse, Starmer has abandoned workers in Wales and Scotland whilst obviously favouring those in England, stoking division across the country.
If steel is truly a national asset, it should be owned by the nation. If it is in the national interes tit should be owned by the nation. If it is a matter of national security, it should be owned by the nation. Labour’s refusal to do so is not just a missed opportunity—it is a betrayal and we mustn’t forget it.
Little wonder therefore that Labour have been annihilated in two by-elections over the last few days, little wonder they are being battered by resignations by Labour officials, even at the point of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party itself. Starmer is destroying the party, maybe it needs to be destroyed so more of the country get behind a progressive movement instead? Check out the latest electoral and representative disasters befalling Starmer’s Labour ahead of local elections in just a few weeks in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as supporting the channel at the same time which is very much appreciated, holding power to account for ordinary working class people and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.