The government would consider nationalising Tata Steel, the minister for small business has said, as she warned leaving the EU could further damage the struggling steel industry.
Giving evidence to MPs on a joint select committee session about the steel industry, Anna Soubry said she remains confident that Tata Steel will find a buyer for its UK business, despite economic volatility triggered by the Brexit vote. She renewed the government’s pledge that it stands ready to lend money “on commercial terms” to any eventual buyer, or take an ownership stake in the business.
“When we faced the crisis with Tata … you can be assured we looked at all options and one of those was whether or not, my phrase, to ‘buy it for a quid’. When you make political determination that you’re going to keep at least one of the blast furnaces [at Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks] open, you look at all options.”
The government has suggested it could co-invest with a potential buyer by taking a 25% stake in the business. Soubry also did not rule out full nationalisation on a temporary basis, if the sale process collapses.
The Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberavon constituency includes Port Talbot, asked if full nationalisation was on the table if a buyer can’t be found and Tata Steel shutters the businesss. The small business minister repeated that “all options” were on the table.
Soubry, who campaigned to remain in the EU, warned that Brexit could have profound consequences” for the British steel industry, regardless of Tata’s sale process. Steelmakers have struggled under the burden of high energy costs and the dumping of cheap steel onto the market by Chinese firms.
Source: The Guardian