British Steel 'needs nationalising by the summer'

British Steel 'needs nationalising by the summer'50 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePritti Mistry,East Yorkshire and LincolnshireandGrace McGrory,in ScunthorpeReutersEmergency legislation was passed in April 2025 to allow the government to save British SteelBritish Steel needs to be brought into public ownership by the summer if a deal between its Chinese owner and the government fails, an MP has said.Labour MP Nic Dakin told the BBC that was "the best outcome" for the business to move forward and get investment while talks with firm Jingye are ongoing, as the tenure remains unresolved a year on. The government took control of the Scunthorpe plant, which employs 2,700 staff - about three-quarters of the company's workforce - on 12 April 2025 to prevent the last two remaining blast furnaces from closing.Industry minister Chris McDonald said he remained committed to resolving a deal because British Steel "is of vital importance to the country".Dakin, the Scunthorpe MP, said he had hoped the ownership issue would be settled by the anniversary of the government's intervention, but accepted this was now unlikely."I would hope that it's resolved as soon as possible, certainly by the summer," he said."In the short term, it needs to come into public ownership so that the business can make its own decisions about its future. And that future may well involve new investors or new owners."BBC/Grace McGrorySteelworker and union rep Thomas Smith said nationalisation would "give security to everybody" in ScunthorpeUncertainty about British Steel's future has continued to hang over workers and the local economy.Steelworker Thomas Smith, who is also branch secretary for Community Union, said: "We're a year on now. We're not really any further and we all want to know what's next."Smith said he favoured nationalisation as it offered workers "security"."...