Ewan Cameron is an approved Conservative candidate and nationwide campaigner.
There should be a cacophony of outrage—a siren of common sense – when the Business Secretary says its “likely British Steel will be nationalised”.
The collective mistrust of nationalisation has evidently eroded over time, with those in power eager to exploit the public’s desire for change.
However, I wager that the silent British majority, composed of individuals old enough to remember the horrors of British Rail’s chronic financial losses, the inflexibility of British Airways, and British Gas’s outdated infrastructure, instinctively understand that Whitehall civil servants are not the best people to run a global business.
The British people know in their heads that this is a misguided foray into public owership. Nationalising British Steel will ultimately not benefit the workers, nor serve the public interest, and it should not serve the Government, which is responsible for all the tasks only governments can undertake.
Perhaps nationalising British Steel primarily serves Labour’s Union paymasters?
I hope my explanation of a potential solution for Scunthorpe Steelworks does not become overly complicated, since this line of thinking seems to be beyond the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Energy, the Business Secretary, the Deputy Prime Minister…..
Let me first be very clear: nationalisation is almost always a bad option. If you are naive enough to believe that making senior civil servants responsible for a steel-mill will yield better results than a team of motivated specialists focused solely on commercial survival, then you should not be permitted to gamble with billions of taxpayers’ money. Instead of dancing to Labour’s union paymasters, if Jonathan Reynolds had commercial acumen beyond his unsuccessful legal career, he would recognise that there are alternative corporate structures available for such business rescue situations.
These alternative structures should have been the substance of the Parliamentary Recall in April.
Unlike Ed Miliband’s £10billion that is likely to displace private capital, Scunthorpe is a real example of where private capital can be harnessed to serve the national interest. Centrum is prepared to invest £2 billion in liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen storage, provided the government shares some of the associated risks. If the opportunity for the UK to purchase energy at the lowest price wasn’t sufficient incentive to act, expanding the Rough Field’s gas storage capacity—safely located beneath the North Sea—will additionally position the UK at the forefront of the hydrogen energy revolution and, crucially, create a reliable energy source for Scunthorpe’s furnaces.
Clearly the Government must always be decerning about which states and identities it collaborates with, criticism of the Jingye Group’s ownership of the Scunthorpe Steelworks should not be acceptable justification to now misallocate taxpayers’ money. The Deputy Prime Minister and Business Secretary’s belief that spending public funds to purchase coking coal and iron-ore is a sound strategy underscores their naivety.
Unfortunately, the two coal-fired furnaces at British Steel in Scunthorpe are obsolete. Global steel manufacturing is undergoing a transformation, shifting either to electric arc furnaces that produce recycled steel or to furnaces that generate high-quality virgin steel, which will be increasingly powered by hydrogen in the future replacing obsolete coal furnaces.
In 2024, Scunthorpe produced less than 0.2 per cent of the world’s steel demand. The claim that Scunthorpe’s furnaces are essential for national defence isn’t even accurate; while HMS Queen Elizabeth does contain steel from Scunthorpe, that ship has clearly sailed. Tata’s Port Talbot facility in South Wales is probably going to supply steel for the next generation Challenger Tanks, indicating that the UK still retains some proprietary steel manufacturing capabilities.
The threatened closure of Scunthorpe Steelworks presented a significant opportunity, if only we had a government with the vision to seize it!
Like the UK, Sweden produces less than 0.4 per cent of the world’s steel; however, unlike the UK, Sweden’s steel companies are profitable and enjoy a global reputation for producing exceptionally high-quality virgin steel products.
The steel market recognizes that if you want steel of superior quality, with precise specifications, minimal impurities, and a product that ensures safety, you should choose Sweden’s virgin steel—just like their cars; produced with safety built-in.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister seems oblivious to this potential, possibly due to McFadden advising him that, like Trump, he must believe globalization is dead. A forward-looking, innovative team of politicians wouldn’t be blind to the opportunity of collaborating with an ally and new NATO member to transform Scunthorpe into the world’s next hydrogen-powered steel plant. The Boden plant in Sweden is forecasted to produce more high-quality virgin steel per year than the total UK output of steel last year. By switching from coal to hydrogen, Scunthorpe could produce high quality near-zero-emission virgin steel, ready to meet the increasing demand.
I trust I have explained that the technology and expertise are available, and a reliable source of green power can be conveniently sourced. The Scunthorpe steelworkers could look forward to producing a market-leading product at a profit.
Unfortunately, for the 3,500 workers, Centrum and the 28 million British households who all want lower energy costs and wish to see Scunthorpe have a commercial future, this Government is behaving as though it has already decided to put its ideology and its paymaster’s interests before the national interest.
