UK lawmakers approve rescue of British Steel in emergency parliamentary session
Source: AP
By PAN PYLAS
Updated 10:25 AM CDT, April 12, 2025
LONDON (AP) — U.K. lawmakers returned to Parliament from their Easter break on Saturday to approve an emergency rescue of the country’s last remaining factory that makes steel from scratch.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned lawmakers for the unusual Saturday sitting, only the sixth since World War II, to back a bill primarily aimed at blocking British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye Group, from closing the two massive blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in the north of England that are key in the steelmaking process.
The bill gives Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct the company’s board and workforce, ensure its 3,000 workers get paid and order the raw materials necessary to keep the blast furnaces running.
Jingye has said the Scunthorpe plant is losing 700,000 pounds ($910,000) a day as a result of challenging market conditions and increased environmental costs. The recent decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose a 25% tariffs on imported steel hasn’t helped.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/british-steel-factory-china-rescue-tariffs-3256d2cf56350284237db7fc970a6799