Keir Starmer‘s dramatic intervention on British Steel has been driven by Reform’s progress in Labour heartlands, insiders have claimed.
The government used a rare Saturday sitting of Parliament yesterday to push through emergency legislation effectively taking control of the industry.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has now ordered Chinese owners Jingye to keep the Scunthorpe plant going after talks broke down.
But Tories have argued that Ed Miliband’s Net Zero policies are to blame for the collapse, requiring fuel to be shipped in from abroad rather than produced in the UK.
And there are claims that Sir Keir’s approach is based on his fears that Nigel Farage will be his main opponent by the next general election.
Keir Starmer ‘s dramatic intervention on British Steel has been driven by Reform’s progress in Labour heartlands, insiders have claimed
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has now ordered Chinese owners Jingye to keep the Scunthorpe plant going after talks broke down (file picture)
There are claims that Sir Keir’s approach is based on his fears that Nigel Farage will be his main opponent by the next general election
Mr Farage made a high profile visit to Scunthorpe last week demanding nationalisation, and defending the steel sector is seen as essential for blunting Reform’s appeal to the working class.
One senior Labour figure told the Sunday Times that Sir Keir’s chief political strategist Morgan McSweeney was focused on the threat.
‘Everything he is doing makes much more sense if you understand that, by the time of the next election, he thinks the battle, in large parts of the country, will be between Labour and Reform,’ they said.
‘He thinks there is more chance that Reform eclipses the Tories than that the Conservative Party eclipses Reform.’
That challenge is likely to be thrown into sharp relief in local elections on May 1, when most expect Reform to make significant gains.
However, Mr Farage does face strategic problems of his own – including his close alliance with Donald Trump, who has caused global chaos with his bungled trade war and consternation over his stance on Nato.
In the Commons yesterday, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith attempted to hang the blame for British Steel’s woes firmly on Labour.
Tories have argued that Ed Miliband’s Net Zero policies are to blame for the collapse, requiring fuel to be shipped in from abroad rather than produced in the UK
He claimed Scunthorpe is the ‘victim of a dishonesty that pretends it is better for the environment to ship coke halfway around the planet than from down the road’.
He complained that Mr Miliband’s Net Zero obsession had resulted in ‘an energy policy that has driven costs higher than any competing nation’.
‘No-one is more responsible for this than the Energy Secretary and the Prime Minister who appointed him,’ he added.
