Labour confirms Port Talbot steelworks will NOT be nationalised - 'No decision has been made and taken'

A Labour minister has confirmed the Port Talbot steelworks are not due to be nationalised.

Lord Leong said while the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill "provides flexibility to intervene if a future need arises", ministers had set their sights on taking only British Steel assets into public ownership.

The Bill, which would give ministers the power to nationalise steel businesses’ shares or property, has already cleared the Commons.

Peers in the House of Lords backed it at second reading on Tuesday, but the proposal faces further scrutiny at a later date before it can become law.

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British Steel’s Scunthorpe steelworks, in north Lincolnshire, has been operating under a Government direction since last year, to prevent its Chinese owner Jingye from closing blast furnaces.

The company was eventually not nationalised.

It is thought the Government previously tried to negotiate with British Steel’s owners on a commercial sale but failed to strike a deal.

Lord Leong said: "While we are strongly minded to use the powers in the Bill to nationalise the company, no decision has been made and taken, and any decision will be subject to a consideration of the public interest test."

He later said: "The Government has got no plans to acquire any other steel undertakings but this Bill provides flexibility to intervene if a future need arises and the public interest test is met.

"The Government remains fully committed to securing the long-term future of steelmaking in Port Talbot through Tata Steel’s £1.25billion transition to a state-of-the-art, electric arc furnace, supported by up to £500million of Government funding."

Blast furnaces at Port Talbot, on the South Wales coast near Swansea, closed in 2024.

New electric arc furnaces, which use an electric current to melt scrap steel or iron to produce steel, rather than coke, were due to open next year.

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However, Lord Leong said "grid delays" meant "timelines are still evolving and not yet finalised".

He continued: "We remain fully committed to securing the long-term future of steelmaking in Port Talbot, and are working closely with all parties involved to identify mitigations and explore options to accelerate delivery."

Former Plaid Cymru leader Lord Wigley had earlier said steelworks at both Port Talbot and Scunthorpe "should be developed in a manner that avoids strategic, economic or defence needs being limited to one location”"

He added: "There is widespread belief that the steel industry at Port Talbot has not been treated on an equal basis with that at Scunthorpe."

Lord Wigley, who led Plaid Cymru from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2000, continued: "Now, we don’t claim that Port Talbot should have preferential treatment but neither should Scunthorpe."

Conservative shadow business minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom warned "the steel sector has been operating on a tight margin for years and nationalisation does not make any of those problems disappear".

He also said: "The Government says that the public interest will include considerations of national security, the economy and critical infrastructure.

"But could ministers be any more vague when they refer to the economic interests of the United Kingdom?"

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