The Energy Secretary must go

A Saturday session of the House of Commons is normally reserved for the gravest of crises. This was called because the Government required support for legislation without which the country’s last steel blast furnaces in Scunthorpe would close, probably for good.

The debate highlighted the short-termism of allowing a strategic industry to fall into the hands not merely of foreign investors but of a Chinese firm with no interest in what mattered to the UK.

Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said the bosses of Jingye, which owns the Scunthorpe steel plant, were not negotiating its future “in good faith” and wanted to move British steel production almost entirely to China. Why should anyone be surprised?

In any case, most of our steel already comes from China and other producers around the world. Mr Reynolds said that Germany, Holland and Sweden made their own steel and there was no reason why the UK could not do so as well. But there is a reason and it is one the Government continues to duck: the excessively high costs of energy in the UK compared to other major industrial nations.

This is not entirely Labour’s fault because our current net zero policy was introduced by the Conservatives, but the current Government has subscribed to the same approach. This is an opportunity for the UK’s national interest to be put ahead of net zero zealotry and for levies to be removed, exemptions given, pits reopened, North Sea licences issued and prices reduced to rescue what is left of our manufacturing base.

To that end, Sir Keir Starmer needs to demonstrate the pragmatic ruthlessness he seeks to cultivate and remove the main blockage to a sensible future. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, must go.