Business secretary refuses to say whether there are enough supplies to keep British Steel furnaces running – as it happened | British Steel

• The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, declined to guarantee that British Steel will be able to secure enough raw materials in time to keep the Scunthorpe blast furnaces going.

• Reynolds also declined to directly accuse the British Steel owner Jingye of sabotaging the plant but it is understood ministers do not expect the company to return to any negotiations.

• It came a day after emergency legislation was passed that allows the government to instruct companies to keep loss-making steel operations in England open, or face criminal penalties for their executives.

• Reynolds said the government had decided to take emergency action when it learned that Chinese steel making firm Jingye had not only stopped ordering more raw materials, but begun selling off the supplies it already had.

• The company had also rejected an offer of support in the region of £500m, instead demanding more than twice that figure with few guarantees the blast furnaces would stay open.

• Reynolds said the government expects to lose money running British Steel, but allowing it to collapse would have cost £1bn.

• A government source confirmed to the PA agency that Reynolds had given directions to Jingye after the emergency sitting yesterday, but did not specify what those directions were.

• There is broad consensus among the opposition parties in support of the government’s actions, with the Conservatives backing full nationalisation of the plant.

• There still has been no confirmation of plans to fully nationalise the plant in Scunthorpe but public ownership is looking increasingly likely.

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