Jonathan Reynolds MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 1 May 2025 · Trade Agreements · Hansard source

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  First, let me thank my hon. Friend for all her work as our trade envoy to New Zealand. She knows, because she was present, that on his visit to the UK, New Zealand Prime Minister Luxon spent the day with the Prime Minister, and I was able to spend considerable time with him in the afternoon. We discussed the implementation of the UK-New Zealand FTA, as well as the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, and the importance of working together to support free trade and to protect a rules-based trading system. We are working to ensure that businesses are using the FTA to support the Government’s growth agenda and the plan for change. Later this month, we will host the UK-New Zealand FTA joint committee, which will discuss continuing to grow UK and New Zealand trade.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  To be clear, where there is a transfer of ownership to the state, we would always pay the fair market value for the assets. In this case, the market value is effectively zero, so I take the right hon. Gentleman’s point entirely. I would say that the intention of Jingye has not been to engineer that situation; its intention has been to keep the downstream mills, which colleagues will know are fundamental to our construction and steel industries, and supply them from China, rather than from Scunthorpe; that is the situation.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady will know that the company brought into question whether that coal was the right grade for blast furnace supplies. I remember several debates in this place about that. I should also make it clear—I think hon. Members understand this—that we are talking about two blast furnaces that date from the 1930s and 1950s. We must also be looking to the future, to new technology and new investments. Crucially, having the dedicated resources that this Government have put into steel is why we have the chance to look to the future with optimism. The UK steel industry is an outlier, in the sense that it is a much smaller proportion of our overall economy than in any major comparable economy, so of course there is potential, and we should look to the future. I would be more than willing to work with the hon. Lady as a local MP to do so.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I think I must progress, Mr Speaker. I can see your indication to do so.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  We remain in close engagement with all the unions, which have been monitoring the situation closely. Again, I reiterate that the Bill is not in itself about a change of ownership; it is about a change of control to rectify the situation. However, I will certainly have regard to the comments my hon. Friend has made and, of course, the role of the workforce at all stages. We will never accept the argument that steelmaking is a sunset industry. Steel is vital to every bit of the modern economy. Domestic demand for steel is set only to go up, not down. In the past few weeks alone, we have seen Heathrow airport announce multibillion-pound expansion plans requiring 400,000 tonnes of new steel, and Universal Studios confirm it will be building Europe’s biggest theme park and, where possible, will use UK-made steel to do so. This Government are backing the builders, not the blockers. With the action we take today, we have the chance to feed that boom with steel made in Britain. The legislation we are setting out today will help to end the uncertainty that has been hanging over British Steel’s Scunthorpe site for too long. I welcome the Opposition’s support today for this recall, but this issue should have been resolved years ago. I believe they may now view it as a mistake to have given this essential national asset to this company. I have to address the statement made by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday, which I do as a matter of genuine regret. She claimed that while she did my job, she negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel to build an electric arc furnace at Teesside, followed by one at Scunthorpe. I wish to make it unequivocally clear to the House that the new Government inherited no such deal. We could not renege on that deal because it did not exist. On day one, I was told that there had been a lack of progress on this matter to date.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I do not want to embarrass the right hon. Lady, but the blast furnaces have already closed at Port Talbot. They are not available to be saved —that situation has moved on. Let me stress again: Port Talbot is in a stronger position because it has that long-term future in place and the potential additional investments through the green steel fund.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I endorse my hon. Friend’s comments entirely. I do not believe there is a history of the SNP calling for the nationalisation of Grangemouth. It was, as ever, on the bandwagon. I think we all recognise that the SNP does not campaign on its record in running Scotland; it campaigns on grievance. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the contrast is with a Labour Government in this place who are on the side of working people everywhere.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  Our friends in the press will follow that up and find out exactly how much money the Leader of the Opposition secretly promised to Jingye to transfer those jobs out of Scunthorpe. I think it might be wise, on all counts, for that statement to be withdrawn. The situation we inherited across the board on assuming office is one where most of our foundation industries were in some substantial difficulty. Since 2010, UK crude steel production has almost halved, and we know that rebuilding our steel industry after years of neglect will be a challenge, but it is one that this Government have grasped.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to the right hon. Member and his party for their presence today. He will not draw me on the other principal issue that we have been dealing with at the Department for Business and Trade over the last few days, but to be clear, the issues around British Steel are about more than the imposition of tariffs. The tariffs are not welcome, and I do not think there is justification for them to be put in place. I believe that it is in our interests, but also in the US’s interests, to agree a position that removes those tariffs in the interests of steelworkers.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I think my hon. Friend refers to clause 7, which deals with compensation. Again, let me be clear: this is a clause that we would put in any Bill. We are not Russia, and we do not sequester assets. The language in the clause—the legal definition—is something that we would use in most standard procedures. Going back to the question from the right hon. Member for Goole and Pocklington (David Davis), the effective market value of Jingye is zero, so there is no inconsistency between those two points.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful that my hon. Friend has been able to put that point on the record for his community, to avoid the kind of situation we have seen in lots of industrial communities, to be frank, over the years. This is why we take this action today in the national interest: to provide that bridge and that possibility to the future. Specifically in relation to the downstream mills, even if we were willing to accept a situation in which they were supplied from a foreign country, as in this case, the confidence of consumers and businesses would surely be put at risk and it would bring into question the entirety of British Steel’s workforce and business and a huge part of our strategic assets. That, again, is why this decisive action today is necessary.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  If such a deal was negotiated, somehow in secret, I ask the Leader of the Opposition to say how much money she agreed to give Jingye for this deal and what conditions were placed on it. To state the obvious, building two electric arc furnaces in two different locations would be more expensive than building one in one location, and, given that Jingye’s request to build two furnaces in Scunthorpe was for £1.2 billion in taxpayers’ support, what—

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member puts it extremely well, if I may say so. The people who have upheld steel as the backbone of construction in the UK for decades deserve better treatment than they would have had if Parliament had not been recalled today to take this action, and we should all bear that in mind. Whether it is at Port Talbot, via our upcoming steel strategy, via our work to improve public procurement, or in the introduction of our industrial strategy to tackle the most thorny issues of industrial competitiveness, where others have shied away, this Government have stepped up. Let me conclude by saying that steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, our security and our identity as a primary global power. Today’s legislation will help ensure that we can retain that steelmaking capability here in the UK both now and for years to come. For British workers’ security, for British industries’ future and—without hesitation—in our national interest, and for the workers of British Steel and their families, this action is essential, and I commend this Bill to the House.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for putting that point on the record. It is precisely because of those concerns that we were able to have ready a legal route to intervene to directly offer support to purchase raw materials. What we could not have anticipated or expected was for a company to act in an irrational economic manner when such a clear, distinctive and generous offer was made.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Gentleman will know—we have had this exchange at the Dispatch Box before—I believe that the capacity for primary steel production is important. The steel strategy looks at new ways of ensuring that, and at not just protecting the past, but at what the future may bring. Direct reduced iron technology is of significant potential interest to us for the future. However, this situation—involving the last remaining blast furnaces, and the proposition put to us—is exceptional and unique, and I need all colleagues to recognise that. The legislation ahead of us today is therefore a proportionate and necessary step. It allows us to take control of British Steel’s blast furnaces, maintaining steel production and, by extension, protecting the company’s 3,500-strong workforce. The Bill does not transfer ownership to the Government. We will have to deal with that matter at a later date. I took the decision that given the exceptional nature of a recall, it would be better to limit the powers in the Bill, which are still significant, rather than introduce more complex matters of property rights and public ownership at this time.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  A transfer of ownership to the state remains on the table. It may well, at this stage, given the behaviour of the company, be the likely option. However, our aspirations for British Steel remain a co-investment agreement with a private sector partner to secure a long-term transformation. The action I seek to take today is not a magic wand or a panacea. The state cannot fund the long-term transformation of British Steel, nor would it want to, but a failure to act today would prevent any more desirable outcome from even being considered, and that, again, is why we must act today.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  This is an excellent chance to clarify that. If the Leader of the Opposition agreed a deal with Jingye to cause massive job losses in Scunthorpe and transfer the jobs to a completely different place, and at higher cost than the request the company made to us, I think she should be able to tell us. I am more than happy to give way.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am pleased for the chance to address this issue. The importance of Grangemouth is why this Labour Government have pledged £200 million to secure its long-term future. It is an important asset, but it is not the only remaining refinery; it is one of three crackers in the United Kingdom—that is important. Specifically, it is not a comparable situation, and the behaviour of the company is not comparable to the case of British Steel. I also say to the right hon. Member, and indeed to all Members, that this is why we fought and fought again to secure the future of British shipbuilding by saving all four of the Harland and Wolff sites in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The right hon. Member will know that the commercial interest was not in the Scottish yards, but we held them together precisely because of our commitment to Scotland and the Union. It is also why within weeks of taking office we secured a better deal for the workers at Port Talbot. We have repeatedly acted, and we will continue to act no matter how hard the circumstances.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  This is such an important point, and I will be exceptionally brief, but the right hon. Gentleman knows from debates that he and I have been in that I am obsessed with the issue of industrial energy prices and by the very substantial rise from 2010 to 2024—a 50% real-terms increase. As I think he knows, the two fundamental issues are: first, our network charges and how we do those, which is different from other countries; and secondly, fundamentally, the marginal cost is set by the price of gas—the fossil fuel price—for the overall system. I am not completely rejecting everything that he is saying, but we must understand that key point: it is the gas price.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will give way one last time.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will take one more intervention.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  I believe that that is on the record. I hope to convince all colleagues today to support this action, which is in the national interest.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  As I tried to articulate in my opening speech on Second Reading, I understand the gravity of the situation, which gives puts some context to the demands for further powers to be included in the Bill. The limitation, as wide as it is, is the right measure, and I can give the hon. Member my absolute assurance that I shall seek to do exactly as she says.

• 12 Apr 2025 · Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill · Hansard source

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  This is genuinely revelatory. I say again: if Jingye’s request was for £1.2 billion to build at lesser cost in one place, what was the sum of money agreed by the Leader of the Opposition when she was Business Secretary to build in two places? It certainly was not in the accounts that the Chancellor had. I will give way. How much money was agreed to Jingye to close the jobs in Scunthorpe? I ask her.