28 June 2023 , 13:12
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Hundreds of steelworkers marched on Westminster today pleading with ministers to save their jobs.
Company bosses and experts fear the sector could be doomed unless the Government slashes energy costs and helps it move to greener production.
Richard Holmes, 39, who has worked at Sheffield’s Marcegaglia plant for 15 years, said: “It’s a dwindling industry. Where I live and work, it was built on steel communities and it’s slowly being eroded away.
“It’s a real crucial time, we are in danger in the next few years of not having a steel industry - and it’s the backbone of a good economy.
“It’s worrying times, that’s why we’re all here today.”
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Union leaders joined an estimated 250 workers wearing fluorescent hi-vis jackets and hard hats, waving flags and holding placards at a Trafalgar Square rally.
Richard Holmes, 39, works at Sheffield’s Marcegaglia (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
Paul McBean, 61, works at British Steel in Scunthorpe (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Others wore black t-shirts bearing the slogan “UK steel emergency” while signs read: “Britain - we need our steel now”; “Back it or lose it”; and “Offshoring emissions is not a green steel plan”.
Protesters marched down Whitehall chanting “Save our steel!” as cars beeped their horns.
A motorist driving a gold Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow tooted and offered a thumbs up while wellwishers along the route backed the steelworkers’ fight.
One woman at a bus stop told them: “We are on your side” while workmen renovating a building shouted: “Go on lads!”
The procession halted briefly opposite Downing Street where Rishi Sunak was in No10 preparing for Prime Minister’s Questions.
Arriving in Parliament Square, workers demanded investment to protect the industry so Britain would not be left at the mercy of foreign regimes and polluting overseas firms for buying steel.
Protesters marched from Trafalgar Square down Whitehall (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Tata’s Steve Webster, 54, began working at the factory in Shotton, Flintshire when he was 16.
Steve said: “The industry is on a knife-edge. We had years and years of underinvestment.
“The Government has got to decide if it wants a steel industry and it has to decide soon.
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“Without help from the Government we can’t make the transition to green steel, and without green steel you’re exporting jobs and importing C02 from around the world.”
Paul McBean, 61, began working at Scunthorpe’s plant, now run by China’s Jingye-owned British Steel, in 1978.
Calling on ministers to pump cash into the green steel transition, he said: “We’re in dire need of some help.
Steve Webster, 54, works at Tata's Shotton factory (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror) “What we want is a 50/50 partnership between the companies and the Government.”
He added: “We are at crisis point. We have had bad times but this is the worst time I’ve ever known in all the time I’ve been here.”
Liberty Steel’s Chris Williamson, 48, of Rotherham, South Yorks, called on the Government to slash energy prices to provide a “level playing field” with foreign rivals.
Chris, who has worked in the industry for 28 years, said: “Every steel plant is struggling.”
John Stead, 59, who has worked at Tata’s plant in Hartlepool, Co Durham, for 33 years, said: “The message we want to send is that the Government needs to save our industry.
“I’d like the Government to step in and give us a level playing field, with energy costs it’s a nightmare at the minute.
“It’s a threat to the entire industry.”
Chris Williamson, 48, works at Liberty Steel in Rotherham, South Yorks (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
John Stead works at Tata in Hartlepool (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Community’s general secretary Roy Rickhuss told the Mirror the sector was “at a significant crossroads for the future”, warning: “This is it.”
He said: “The capacity to make steel is absolutely vital to the country.
“For our own defence we cannot rely on imported steel, we have to retain the capacity to make and produce our own steel.
“This is an important point in our history.”
He added: “We know we’ve got to decarbonise - we know we’ve got to get to net-zero, we can’t bury our heads in the sand, it’s happening and we have to do it - but we need support.
“We can’t as an industry and as a country dither and delay on this anymore.
Community steelworkers' union general secretary Roy Rickhuss led demonstrators (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)“We need to see concrete action from the Government delivering competitive energy prices, ambitious investment in green steel production, and climate measures to protect us from dirty steel imports.”
Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham said: "We stand on the very precipice for Britain's steel industry.
“It's time our politicians stepped up to the plate and took action to save our most vital of industries
GMB national officer Charlotte Childs said: “Under this Government’s watch, the UK’s proud steel industry is being allowed to wither and die.
“We need action now, or the industry as we know it will cease to exist.”
Gareth Stace, director general of trade body UK Steel, said: “We can only make the necessary billions of pounds of investment if our government fully backs UK steel production - and it is now or never to make that decision.
Gareth Stace, director-general of trade body UK Steel, joined the rally (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)“Otherwise, we will watch other steelmaking nations invest, overtake us, and witness our steel sector become a thing of the past.”
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberavon constituency includes Britain’s biggest steelworks, Tata at Port Talbot, said switching to environmentally-friendly production was vital for the sector’s future.
“What you see here today is the strength, commitment, passion and dedication of our steelworkers,” said Mr Kinnock, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel.
“It’s vital for our security - in a dangerous and turbulent world we have to have our own steel industry, and it’s vital for the transition to a cleaner, greener economy.
“We can’t build those wind turbines, solar panels, we can’t have the more energy-efficient houses we need without a vibrant, competitive steel industry.”
Speaking at a cross-party parliamentary meeting earlier, Shadow Business Minister Bill Esterson admitted: “You cannot have a modern, thriving economy without core industries, especially steel, and you can’t do it unless you modernise and decarbonise
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock marched alongside Mr Rickhuss (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)“It is so frustrating that the Government is dragging its feet.”
Welsh Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said the country would be “safer and better off with a thriving steel sector”.
He added: “Steel is a major priority for the Welsh Government and we see the opportunity for a highly-skilled and dedicated workforce to create a greener future in a stronger sector.
“The UK Government cannot allow distractions to put the brakes on a fair deal for steel.”
While protesters demonstrated outside, in the Commons Mr Sunak was grilled about the Conservatives’ commitment to the sector.
Eight steelworkers sitting in the front row of the public gallery shook their heads and Labour MPs groaned as the PM insisted: “We are proud to support the steel industry and value the contribution that it makes to this country.”
He said the Government was providing hundreds of millions of pounds for energy intensive industries, including steel firms.
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.
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