Welsh Secretary under fire over steel job losses
WELSH Secretary David TC Davies is accused of being “uninterested” in Port Talbot’s steelworks and “casually discarding” thousands of jobs.
Last week, Tata Steel confirmed it is shutting its blast furnaces at the South Wales site after rejecting a last-minute union plea to change its plans.
In the Commons yesterday, Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant criticised the Secretary of State for failing to assess the economic impact the 2,800 expected job losses will have on communities.
Meanwhile, Mr Davies accused Labour members of pretending to have “a special, costed, secret plan that would save all of those jobs”.
After seven months of discussions with unions, Tata Steel revealed it is proceeding with its £1.25bn investment to build an electric arc furnace on the site, and will close the two blast furnaces by the end of June and end of September respectively.
During an urgent question on the issue, Mr Davies said the closing of blast furnaces will have “no impact” on the UK’s steelmaking ability.
This came in response to shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens, who said the news of job losses was “a gut punch” for workers in Port Talbot.
She added: “This government has forked out £500m of taxpayers’ cash for the loss of 3,000 jobs and this is their deal, and they own it.
“Added to that, the loss of sovereign steelmaking is a fundamental threat to our UK economy and security.
“It will constrain our ability to build floating offshore wind that we need to lower energy bills, deliver energy security and create the jobs of the future.”
Mr Davies replied: “It has no impact on sovereign steelmaking, if (Ms Stevens) talks to Tata she will understand, (Ms Stevens) is chuntering here, but all of the iron ore which goes into those blast furnaces comes from abroad.
“All of the coal which is turned into coke is coming in from abroad. All of the limestone is coming in from abroad. It, therefore, has no impact whatsoever on our sovereign steel-making ability.”
Later in the session, Labour MP for Rhondda, Sir Chris said: “The Secretary of State casually discards 2,800 jobs and is so uninterested in the ongoing affect on the rest of the economy in South Wales that he hasn’t even made an assessment of what the economic impact will be on the South Wales valleys more generally.”
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said: “Port Talbot steelworkers in my Aberavon constituency have given their lives to the steel industry, they’ve given their lives to Tata Steel.
“This reckless deal that has been done between the UK Government and Tata is a hammer blow for them.
“And we are hoping there’s still time for the employer and the unions to come together and drop the bad deal for steel and adopt the compelling, robust, multiunion deal instead.”
He added: “Everyone knows, for every job you lose in a steelworks, you lose between two to three more through supply chains and through contractors.
“So the fact the 2,800 number is being used is a massive underestimate of the devastating impact of these job losses through supply chains and sub-contractors.
“Does he agree with me that in fact the number of job losses is far higher than
2,800 if this reckless deal is adopted?
“And does he therefore agree with me that it’s time for everyone to pull back from the brink and adopt that multiunion plan which offers us a bridge to the future, rather than a cliff edge which is currently being pursued.”
Mr Davies replied: “Clearly there’s going to be an impact on those in the supply chain, and there’s been absolutely no doubt about that. That’s why at the transition board meeting, at which he was present, we discussed that and we agreed that we would want to support anyone in the supply chain who’s been affected by it.
“But we can’t start putting numbers on it, it would be irresponsible to start trying to guess a number of people.”
Mr Davies argued that the multiunion Syndex plan “isn’t a plan unless Tata agree to it”, adding: “It’s not the UK Government that (Mr Kinnock) has to convince, it is Tata that have to be convinced. The UK Government has never said it would be against the Syndex plan, it’s Tata who have to be persuaded.”
Labour MP Jessica Morden (Newport East) said: “The lack of ambition from this government for our steel industry is just disgraceful.”
Mr Davies replied: “There has been a lack of responsibility on behalf of some Labour members, though not any in this chamber here, who seem to have gone round suggesting that they have a special costed, secret plan that would save all of those jobs, they don’t.”
Labour MP (Cardiff West) Kevin Brennan said: “There’s no industrial strategy, there’s no vision, there’s no joined upness, there’s just massive sticking plasters from this government.”
Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) said: “In the Netherlands political pressure resulted in Tata investing in an electric arc furnace and direct produced iron technology, all the while protecting jobs and keeping blast furnaces open.
“The German government is spending £2.2bn – over four times more than the UK – to transform its steel industry towards hydrogen. Why is the UK so uniquely incapable of effective investment in our strategic steel future?”
Mr Davies replied: “There is, however, nothing whatsoever to stop Tata at some point in the future, from building a DRI (direct reduced iron) plant, to go along with the electric arc furnace if they believe that is a commercially sensible thing to do.
“But even if they do that, it is not really going to resolve the problem that we face, of 2,800 jobs being lost in Port Talbot –at best it would save another 200 jobs.”