Labour trade chief visits world's biggest steelworks as he pledges UK shake-up

11 July 2023 , 23:01

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Nick Thomas-Symonds meeting Maryland Governor Wes Moore in Baltimore (Image: @NickTorfaen/Twitter)

Labour's trade chief has visited what has visited the world’s biggest steelworks as part of a fact-finding mission in the US.

Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds wants to learn from Joe Biden’s “worker centric trade policy” as he shapes Labour ’s plans for government.

The party hopes to transform polluting UK industrial heartlands and make them a key part of its green energy pledge. As part of his trip to America, the frontbencher went to Sparrows Point in Baltimore.

Named after the landowner Thomas Sparrow, Sparrows Point was the site of a massive, sprawling industrial complex which produced its first steel in 1889.

By the mid-20th century, the plant was the world's largest steel mill, stretching four miles from end to end and employing 30,000 workers. By 1961, it was producing 672,000 short tons of steel a year.

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But changes in the steel industry triggered a decline in its fortunes during the 1970s and 1980s - just as in Britain. It closed for good in 2012.

But it now produces wind turbines for the offshore energy industry. The Mirror told earlier this year how Britain’s biggest steelworks, Tata’s Port Talbot plant, wants to produce huge windmills as part of the Celtic Freeport plan backed by the UK and Welsh governments.

Mr Thomas-Symonds, the MP for Torfaen, South Wales, said: “I’m in the US to see their ‘worker centric trade policy’ in action and look at how we can work together to drive up standards.

“The US is showing that getting working people and businesses involved in trade negotiations can help deliver good jobs and growth in the economy – that’s what we want to deliver here in the UK.

“Labour will put workers and jobs at the heart of trade policy.

“A Labour Government is committed to delivering a new wave of good jobs, with high standards, decent pay and union recognition as part of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.”

Ben Glaze