WHAT WE’RE ALL SAYING Steel yourself for more stolen jobs

This Government is hellbent on finishing the job that Margaret Thatcher started. In 1980 she appointed hatchet man Ian MacGregor – who went on to destroy the mining industry – to close steel plants and cut jobs.

Last year we discovered that the steel for four new refuelling tankers for the Navy would come from South Korea, while more new ships were to be built using French steel, with many more supply contracts going to China.

Now we learn that eight Royal Navy Type 26 frigates are going to be built with 65% of the steel coming from Sweden (Mirror, July 13).

Once again we have put the Tories back in power, including in the steel manufacturing town of Redcar. Since Margaret Thatcher, successive Tory governments have failed to support British manufacturing, especially steelmaking. This is not the first time the Mirror has reported about Swedish steel being used to supply the Navy. The Tories have also stabbed British steelworkers in the back by giving the Chinese contracts to supply the metal for HS2, and a Spanish firm contracts to build train carriages for Northern rail. It’s about time that Tory governments supported the British workforce. So much for Theresa May’s proclamation that she will put British people first. Now she has condemned our loyal, hard-pressed steelworkers to an uncertain future by using mostly foreign-sourced steel to build eight new Navy ships.

Defence minister Harriett Baldwin blamed our inability to produce steel of the quality needed as a reason that 65% of the steel will come from Sweden.

From the outset, the Tories have undermined all British industries with quick-profit sell-offs of our products. How hypocritical to blame British industry for a problem created by Tory governments. It makes my blood boil that Sweden is to supply 65% of the steel for eight new Navy ships.

And this when Theresa May says she wants a fairer Britain. It’s no wonder the unions are furious about missed chances to secure crucial jobs because this is a betrayal of our workers. Theresa May is relying on Sweden to supply the steel for new Navy ships when Britain was once the best producer of it in the world. With Brexit about to happen, she should be doing everything possible to promote and help British workers. As someone with 38 years’ experience in the steel industry, I too would have procured the steel to build these ships from Sweden.

And it wouldn’t be down to cost, either.

I get no pleasure in stating that our product is much inferior to that produced by the Swedes. Britain is sending £40million to help the people of Mosul in Iraq rebuild their lives (Mirror, July 13).

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost us untold billions.

It’s a pity Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t listened to all those years ago when Blair and Bush took us to war. There would be no Islamic State and the Government money tree would be weighed down with plenty of cash to help the people of this country. Based on Boris Johnson’s recent outburst at the EU, when he gets kicked out of Parliament – as he most likely will – he shouldn’t consider being a poker player as a future job.