British Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected calls for the recall of Parliament to discuss the crisis that the country’s steel industry has been plunged into following the decision of Tata Steel to put its floundering steel business in the United Kingdom on the market.
Following crisis talks with senior ministers at 10 Downing on Thursday, the Prime Minister ruled out re-nationalisation of the steel industry as an option. He said that the government is “doing everything it can” to save the sector, but added that there were “no guarantees of success.”
No guarantees from Tata Steel
Tata Steel on its part has not given the government any guarantee that it will keep the business going until a buyer can be found.
With the largest of its plants at Port Talbot, which employs 15,000 people, making a loss of one million pounds a day according to the company, it would seem unlikely that a buyer would be willing to invest.
Closure will cost 40,000 jobs
The closure of the steel industry will cost 40,000 jobs, the government says, which would include job losses of 25,000 in down stream employment.
Mr. Cameron cut short his vacation in the Canary Islands and returned to London to address what is one of the biggest challenges that his government has faced.
Catch-22 situation for government
The options before the government are few, according to industry watchers. It can neither close down the industry, nor can it find a buyer at short notice. Nationalisation or even a state bailout could attract European Union sanctions.
China’s steel production in just 2013 and 2014 was more than Britain’s entire cumulative steel output from 1870 to the present, Sky reporter Ed Conway reported on Thursday, citing figures from the World Steel Association.
Crisis long in the making
The crisis in the steel industry has been long in the making and there were ample warning signs of an impending emergency, which the government ignored, Opposition parties allege.
Corbyn’s call
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who visited the Talbot plant on Wednesday called upon the government to “intervene now” to protect the industry and its workforce. “If we don’t intervene to protect this steel works, and the other steel works, we will have no steel industry in Britain,” he said.
Meanwhile a petition calling on the Prime Minister to recall parliament to discuss the steel crisis has got more than 100,000 signatures.
