Monday 20 May 2019 4:56 am | Updated: Wednesday 05 June 2019 8:40 am

Ministers pledge to buy British as steel giant falters

MPs have called for more support for the steel industry as the government today signs a pledge to buy from local producers amid a crisis at British Steel.

Anna Turley, Labour MP for Redcar said the UK Steel Charter, which ministers will sign today, is welcome, but needs to be “backed up by deeds and by money.”

The pledge commits the central government, which is expected to spend around £2.5bn on steel in the coming five years, to increase the proportion of British steel used in its projects.

Data from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy shows that 43 per cent of government steel purchases were from UK suppliers last year.

It comes as ministers are expected to continue talks over the future of British Steel.

About 5,000 jobs, largely in Scunthorpe, could be on the line if the struggling producer cannot secure a further £75m government loan.

The private-equity backed company has said it has enough liquidity to stay afloat for the time being, but ministers have been urged to act quick.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of time. My impression was it was urgent last week. So it will remain urgent. The difficulty is the longer the uncertainty goes on, it feeds the problem,” Scunthorpe MP Nic Dakin told City A.M.

British Steel, which exports most of its output, has blamed uncertainty around Brexit for its problems.

Last month the government said it was lending £100m to help the firm meet a European emissions bill.

However Turley said more is needed.

“We haven’t really seen any of the sustainable changes to the industry in this country that we’ve been calling for,” she told City A.M., highlighting the cost of energy and business rates.

“The crisis with British Steel in the last few weeks has probably shaken the government up a bit and made it say: ‘Right, we’ve got to do something, because we can’t keep lurching from one crisis to another’,” she added.