Sunak still silent on lack of steel call
RISHI Sunak was in Wales yesterday to speak to the Welsh Conservative Party conference in Llandudno. He was happy to talk about farming, addressing protesting farmers to criticise the Welsh Government’s plans for farm subsidies, but his answers on other issues weren’t all as direct.
We quizzed him on why he had refused to take First Minister Mark Drakeford’s telephone call about Tata’s decision to close the blast furnaces at Port Talbot and how he could justify continuing to shut Wales out of a share of rail spending in England on the London to Birmingham HS2 line, currently estimated at around £66bn.
On Port Talbot, Mr Sunak emphasised how his government had stepped in to provide a £500m grant to part-fund the building of an electric arc furnace at the steel plant, which he said would safeguard jobs. He said there was a further £100m to support workers losing their jobs.
And he said the Welsh Government should answer for the fact that it had not provided any financial support to Tata.
However his explanation for not taking the First Minister of Wales’ call about Port Talbot was just that he was “getting on with the job”. And he did not directly reply to BBC Wales’ question about whether he had tried to do a deal that would have kept the blast furnaces open.
His reply was: “We’ve been in extensive deliberations with Tata and provided the largest one-off grant in our nation’s history to safeguard 5,000 jobs and the long-term future of steelmaking in South Wales, together with support for the people affected. The Welsh Government haven’t invested a penny in doing any of these things – that’s the question that really should be asked.”
On Tata, he told us: “We’ve worked very hard to support steelmaking in South Wales and when I was chancellor we stepped in to provide financial support to Celsa to save that company and all the people working there at the time, and when it’s come to the situation at Tata, what we faced was the loss of 8,000 jobs and the complete closure of that plant.
“We had intensive discussions with the company and then provided one of the largest-ever support packages in our country’s history, pretty much, half a billion pounds, and what that has done has safeguarded 5,000 jobs and ensured the long-term sustainable future of steelmaking in South Wales. On top of that, of course, it will be an anxious time for those workers affected, so what we’ve done together with
Tata is create a transition fund of £100m which the Secretary of State [for Wales] is chairing which will provide support to those people.”
On why he didn’t speak to Mr Drakeford, he said: “Because I was getting on to support steelmaking in South Wales with half a billion pounds, one of the largest grants the UK Government has ever done, and safeguarded 5,000 jobs but crucially the sustainable future of steelmaking in South Wales and provided support to those people affected. The Secretary of State has been deeply engaged with everyone involved and is co-chairing the transition board. The Labour government in Wales has not provided a penny of support to the steelmakers in South Wales.”
On HS2, Mr Sunak wanted to speak about his decision not to proceed with the second leg of the line from Birmingham to Manchester and how Wales would benefit from the money that would have been spent on that being shared out more widely in future, including funding the promised electrification of the North Wales mainline.
However, his answer did not address how the UK Government could justify denying Wales a share of the huge sums being spent currently on the first leg of HS2. It has been estimated that Wales is missing out on around £3bn it would have received if the London to Birmingham line was classified as “England only”.