There have undoubtedly been missteps in the government’s first year. One of the most consequential has been its mishandling of the steel industry. While the origins of the crisis were not of our making – Trump-imposed tariffs and sector mismanagement both played a role – what matters now is how we choose to respond.
A strategic national asset
The case for public ownership is no longer a matter of debate. Steel is not another commodity to be left to market forces, but a strategic national asset. Domestic steel production is essential for our manufacturing base, our infrastructure, and our green transition. Without British steel there can be no ‘decade of national renewal’.
Allowing the industry to decline further would be a profound strategic mistake – one that we must not make.
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The longer the delay, the more uncertain the future of our national industry becomes. Even the last Conservative government recognised the strategic value of steel when it brought Sheffield Forgemasters into public ownership. Yet today, inaction is creating space for opportunists to take root. Reform now parades itself as a champion of British workers, pledging to renationalise British Steel, while Labour risks being seen as hesitant, if not opposed.
Ministers have relied on the assumption that the private sector alone can secure a future for UK steel. Even this week, government sources claimed there was a “bright future” for steelmaking built on ‘partnership with the private sector’. But the record tells a different story.
We have seen what private ownership has meant for UK steel – short-term profits, underwritten by public subsidy, followed by rapid withdrawal. From Jingye’s managed decline of British Steel, to Liberty Steel’s collapse into liquidation, to David Cameron and Greensill Capital, the pattern is clear. Steelworkers, and the communities they support, deserve far better.
Some still argue that public ownership is ideological. In truth, the opposite is true. Refusing to act in the face of clear market failure is the real dogma. Every serious industrial nation intervenes in its steel sector. We must do the same, using every tool in our arsenal – not as a last resort, but a deliberate, strategic choice.
A crucial opportunity
A change of Business Secretary offers a crucial opportunity for course correction – and one that we must be bold enough to take. Labour cannot afford to let the far right claim the mantle of industrial renewal. We must shape the agenda, not follow it.
That starts by placing steel at the heart of a serious, long-term strategy, showing that we are committed to building an economy that workers for workers.
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This is not a theoretical debate. In steel communities, the closure or downsizing of a plant does not just mean job losses but threatens entire local economies. We cannot talk credibly about rebuilding trust in these communities if we won’t stand up for the industries they rely on.
Recent interventions to keep some sites operational have shown that state support is both necessary and possible. But for communities like Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham, short-term fixes are not enough. What we need now is long-term security – and that means placing steel where it belongs – in public hands, accountable to the communities it sustains.
As the new Business Secretary, Peter Kyle has a rare opportunity to set a new direction grounded in long-term thinking and the national interest. A serious industrial strategy cannot be built on subsidies to failing private firms, nor on the hope that the market will resolve a crisis of its own creation. It must begin with the recognition that some industries are too important to be left alone – and steel is one of them.
Publicly-owned steel at the heart of a mission-led industrial strategy
This is the moment to place publicly-owned steel at the heart of a mission-led industrial strategy. Doing so would help protect thousands of jobs and provide a foundation from which to plan for the long-term. Providing sustained investment, decarbonising production and anchoring good jobs in communities that need them the most.
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Successive private owners have treated our steelworks as assets to exploit. But in public hands they can once again be a source of local pride and powerhouses of our national renewal. Peter Kyle now has an opportunity to show that Labour is ready to lead with ambition and purpose and not simply keep steel alive, but ensure it thrives – for good, and for the public good.
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