Letter: Government abandons British Steel
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Tim Sainsbury, the Minister for Industry, astounded the Commons when he accepted he had not stood up for British interests when it came to the levying of fines on British Steel by the European Commission (report, 17 February).
Having privatised steel and brought to an end the ideological argument as to whether it should be in the public or private sector, having witnessed the loss of 100,000 jobs and the shedding of twice the capacity of the rest of Europe's steel makers, having ended the subsidy, the Government has sat back while subsidies and overcapacity have continued in Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
The Government says that it wishes to be at the heart of Europe, yet it makes no effort with the European Commission when it comes to protecting the British steel industry. Foreign governments, meanwhile, ensure that a further pounds 5bn of subsidies will continue for their steel industries, which continue to produce their excess capacity.
The British government likes to talk tough in the House of Commons to sway its own Euro-doubters, but in the Commission, as in the Council of Europe, the Government is curiously slow in coming forward and seems to feel that, having abandoned the industry to the private sector, it can now abandon it to the dictates of the European Commission, which has fined the more successful steel companies, in the knowledge that they will pay should they lose on appeal.
The Government says that it wants full and fair application of the European Commission's competition rules but knows that in state-owned industries it will be the taxpayer who will have to pay any fines, while in our own country it will be the shareholder and workforce who have struggled so long and accepted so much sacrifice, to make their industry the most efficient.
Yours faithfully,
STUART BELL
MP for Middlesbrough (Lab)
House of Commons
London, SW1
17 February
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments