Our social affairs correspondent Jessica Murray has this report on the vote to reject a deal that end the Birmingham bin strike

Bin workers have “overwhelmingly” rejected a deal that would have ended an all-out strike in Birmingham, during which bin bags have piled up in the streets and the city has faced an influx of rats.

Negotiations between the council and Unite, representing the striking workers, have stalled for months, and refuse workers have been on indefinite strike since 11 March.

On Monday, workers were balloted on a “partial deal on pay protection for a few”, according to the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham.

Workers voted overwhelmingly to reject the deal, the union said.

“The rejection of the offer is no surprise as these workers simply cannot afford to take pay cuts of this magnitude to pay the price for bad decision after bad decision,” said Graham.

“The government must now call a meeting with the stakeholders to ensure these steps are taken to bring the strike to an end. The government must now also urgently consider Unite’s proposal for debt restructure at Birmingham city council and other local authorities. Workers and communities cannot continue to pay the price.”

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has been asked about the deployment of logistical help from the army to tackle a backlog of waste refuse in Birmingham.

She said:

There’s no boots on the ground, let me be very clear, we’ve deployed a couple of army logistics to help with the logistical operation of clearing up the rubbish.

We’ve got over two-thirds of the rubbish cleared off the streets now, this week we’ll start to see cleaning up the pavements and streets as well as the clearance of all of that rubbish, I’m very pleased about that. The kids are off school, obviously it’s Easter holidays, we want that rubbish cleared.

Our environment reporter Helena Horton has this on how rightwing media talking points falsely portray net zero and clean energy as a villain in the British Steel crisis:

Ed Miliband and the UK’s net zero target are being falsely blamed for the UK’s steel crisis, experts have said.

Some parliamentarians and media commentators placed the blame for Britain’s declining steel industry on the energy secretary, claiming that his net zero policies and lack of support for a proposed coalmine in Cumbria have made the energy and coking coal used to make steel more expensive.

During Saturday’s debate, the shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, said: “No one is more responsible for this than the energy secretary and the prime minister who appointed him.”

The rightwing press was critical of Miliband, with calls for him to be reshuffled from his position and several pieces blaming the energy secretary for the perilous position of the Scunthorpe site.

But experts have said this characterisation is completely false. Prof Rob Gross, the director of the UK Energy Research Centre said: “The clean power mission can actually help save the steel industry.

“High energy prices in the UK undoubtedly play a role in the problems faced by steelmakers. But high energy prices are absolutely not created by net zero policies. Britain is acutely exposed to fluctuations in gas prices, and the gas price also drives UK electricity prices more than in other countries.

“Britain’s amazing wind resources offer the potential for cheap, stable energy prices. We need to build the infrastructure of clean power so we can have cheap power for decades. The drive for clean energy also creates a large demand for steel, for wind farms, nuclear power stations and pylons.”

Read more from Helena Horton here: Rightwing media falsely blame Ed Miliband for UK steel crisis, experts say

The largest steelworkers’ union has welcomed the promotion of two British Steel veterans to lead the company under government control.

The Community union said it welcomed the appointments of Allan Bell as chief executive and Lisa Coulson as chief commercial officer, after a near-total breakdown in relations between workers and British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye.

Assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid added “We have enjoyed a constructive relationship with Allan and Lisa in their previous roles, and we know that they will fulfil the government’s ambition of maintaining reliable and professional leadership on site. The focus now must be on securing the continued operation of the blast furnaces and delivering a brighter future for British Steel.”

Jingye remains the owner of British Steel, but ministers have acknowledged that full nationalisation remains an option. Many people in the industry expect it to be the next step, as Jingye’s has proven unwilling to invest.

In an earlier statement, Bell said “Our immediate priorities are securing the raw materials we need to continue blast furnace operations, ensuring we have the dedicated personnel to run those furnaces, and maintaining the highest levels of health and safety for our workforce.”

I mentioned earlier that the Conservative party were pushing waste collection in Birmingham as a local election issue ahead of polling in some regions of England on 1 May. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has just issued a video of her meeting residents in Birmingham. In it she says:

I’m standing in a park in Birmingham that should be full of children playing. Instead, it’s full of rubbish, needles, rotten food. This is not what life is supposed to be like. This is what Labour run Birmingham looks like and the people here are suffering because of Labour incompetence.

We need to do better for our local residents. That’s why I’m telling people to vote Conservative for better services. You can’t just hope for a better Council, you’ve got to vote for one.

The local elections [in some regions of England] are coming up. And if you don’t want your community to end up like this one, there’s only one credible alternative, and that’s the Conservative party.

In the video residents are seen complaining about council tax rises and the closures of local libraries.

The Conservative party have also claimed on social media that “the rubbish piling up on Birmingham streets now weighs as much as two Eiffel Towers”, although it isn’t entirely clear how they have calculated that.

Keir Starmer’s social media output has also been in campaigning mode, although in his case he is aiming to champion success in government policy on the NHS in England.

The prime minister’s message in the last couple of minutes was:

Over three million more appointments delivered. Over 1,500 new GPs recruited. Over 100,000 more people treated on time. Over 80% of patients having cancer ruled out or diagnosed within 28 days. Waiting lists down for the sixth month in a row. Our plan for change is working.

My colleagues Kiran Stacey and Jasper Jolly have this full report on the latest developments with British Steel in Scunthorpe.

Tulip Siddiq has claimed allegations by Bangladeshi authorities against her are a “politically motivated smear campaign” and insisted there is “no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong”.

PA Media reports that speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate Labour MP said: “no one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media.

“My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded. I’m sure you’ll understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign It’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me – there is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong.”

Siddiq resigned from her post in the Treasury earlier this year after an investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser into her links to her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina

Yesterday it was reported An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from Hasina.

Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.

Scotland must not be an “afterthought” for the UK government, John Swinney has said, as he called for the Grangemouth refinery to be nationalised.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the first minister said: “If British Steel is to be nationalised to protect it, then so too should Grangemouth. I’m determined to make sure that Scotland is not viewed as an afterthought.”

Owners Petroineos announced plans to shutter the Grangemouth refinery last year and it was confirmed in recent weeks that 377 workers have accepted voluntary redundancy, with a further 28 compulsory redundancies.

PA Media quotes a Petroineos spokesperson saying: “If governments had wanted to seriously consider different ownership models, the time to start that work was five years ago when we first alerted them to the challenges at the refinery. We have also been clear throughout about the fundamental operational challenges and the scale of losses incurred.”

The government has issued a further comment on the decision by authorities in Hong Kong to refuse entry to Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse. It said:

During his visit to mainland China and Hong Kong, minister for trade policy and economic security Douglas Alexander relayed our immediate and deep concern regarding MP Wera Hobhouse’s denial of entry into Hong Kong.

Minister Alexander raised our concerns and demanded an explanation with senior Chinese and Hong Kong interlocutors, including Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, to understand why the Hong Kong authorities refused access to a British MP.

It is deeply concerning that a UK MP was refused permission to enter Hong Kong last week.

Unjustified restrictions on the freedom of movement for UK citizens into Hong Kong only serves to further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation and the important people-people connections between the UK and Hong Kong.

As the foreign secretary has made clear and Minister Alexander relayed in person, it would be unacceptable for any MP to be denied entry for simply expressing their views.

Downing Street was also asked earlier to comment on the latest situation with waste disposal in Birmingham, where office-based military specialists have been called in to deal with the mounting piles of rubbish on the streets.

PA Media reports the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:

The residents of Birmingham are our first and foremost priority. That’s why we’ve provided a number of staff to support the council to help get the streets cleaned up and address the public health risks.

This includes coordinating the local response with local authorities, providing additional vehicles and crews, and opening household waste centres to Birmingham residents and, as set out over the weekend, a handful of office-based military personnel are supporting operational planning and have made themselves available to the council to support.

And as the deputy prime minister has said, we are now urging Unite to suspend its action and accept the offer that is on the table.

Downing Street said there “no plans” to bring in frontline personnel, and claimed that more than 100 vehicles had left depots on Monday morning.

Earlier the Conservative party attempted to use the issue as part of their campaign for the local elections taking place in some parts of England on 1 May. In a message posted to social media, the party said “Labour have lost control of Britain’s second city. Now Keir Starmer is being forced to call in the ARMY to bail out his failing Labour-run council.”

Earlier this year, when proposing its budget, Cllr John Cotton, leader of Birmingham city council, said “Birmingham city council is facing a number of financial challenges. Our situation has been made much worse by a national crisis in local government finance.”

“A combination of austerity and underfunding – Birmingham has lost over £1bn in funding since 2011 – added to a rising demand for services and inflation mean that, across the country local authorities are facing some of the biggest budget challenges in living memory.”

As well as drawing comparisons with the government’s actions over Grangemouth from the SNP [see 9.30am], Labour’s intervention to try to save the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe has been contrasted with its actions over Port Talbot.

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast has told the PA news agency that the comparison with latter was “not entirely” fair, adding that the Westminster government had been “willing to take the bull by the horns” to keep the Scunthorpe plant going.

Asked whether it was “unfair” of the government to take control of the works in Scunthorpe but not in Port Talbot, Prendergast said: “The difficulty is it’s not entirely a fair comparison, largely on the basis of the majority of stuff that under Port Talbot happened under the previous government.”

He continued, saying:

Frankly, when it came to the industrial strategy, they were asleep at the wheel. You know, when you look at steel specifically, they [the Conservatives] oversaw our steel industry shrink to half the size it was.

I think the steps being taken in Port Talbot were belated but welcome by the current government, but I think it’s a little bit of an unfair comparison.

This [Scunthorpe] was our last blast furnace, it was a different situation, and we have a different government at the wheel, and we’re thankful that we actually have one willing to take the bull by the horns and actually do something which was notably lacking under the last government.

Torsten Bell, who has been MP for Swansea West since the last election, just issued the following statement via social media:

The Conservatives spent 14 years neglecting crucial decisions on the future of UK steelmaking. They left Port Talbot on the brink. The new government was not able to reopen the deal with Tata, but it did renegotiate a better deal – in just 10 weeks. Labour’s deal secured the immediate future of steelmaking in Port Talbot. It laid the groundwork for long-term investment.

And it guaranteed enhanced protections for every Tata employee in Wales. Unlike the Tories – who announced £80 million to support Port Talbot’s transition but didn’t actually spend a penny – Labour has already delivered that full sum, with funds dedicated to retraining workers, creating new jobs and supporting local suppliers.

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts described the decision to seize control of the British Steel operation in Scunthorpe as a “bitter day for the people of Port Talbot”. She said:

People in south Wales have been loyally voting for Labour for decades. Does this Labour government therefore feel proud that those votes have been paid back by Tory-style deindustrialisation in Port Talbot? Plaid Cymru has consistently called for nationalisation, but the Labour first minister of Wales rejected our calls.

My colleague Jasper Jolly has this explainer as to why there a race to find raw materials for the beleaguered Scunthorpe steelworks.

The director general of UK Steel, the trade association for the steel industry in the country, has issued a statement on the latest developments with the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe. Gareth Stace said:

The Act passed this weekend by the Government gives British Steel and its workers breathing space while a long-term situation for the site’s operations is found.

The next and most immediate step is securing the iron ore and coking coal needed to keep the furnaces operating. If the furnaces cool down, it is virtually impossible for them to be restarted.

We applaud the herculean efforts of officials and British Steel staff to secure these supplies. Dozens of other steel companies have offered assistance and materials, demonstrating that, at times of crisis, the sector comes together as one. The success of our steel industry sits above any individual business.

UK Steel and our members stand ready to do all we can to support British Steel in these efforts.

Former Conservative MP Craig Williams is among 15 people who have been charged after bets were placed on the timing of the 2024 general election, the Gambling Commission has revealed.

Among others facing charges are Russell George, the Senedd member for Montgomeryshire, and Nick Mason, a former chief data officer for the Conservative party.

Steve Bray, 56, known as the “Stop Brexit Man”, has been cleared at Westminster magistrates court in London of flouting a police ban on him playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside parliament in March last year.

More details soon …

British Steel has announced the appointment of Allan Bell as interim CEO and Lisa Coulson as interim chief commercial officer with immediate effect.

Bell and Coulson have been long term employees of British Steel, the company said, and in a statement the new interim CEO said:

Our sole focus is ensuring a secure and sustainable future for British Steel’s production in Scunthorpe.

Our immediate priorities are securing the raw materials we need to continue blast furnace operations, ensuring we have the dedicated personnel to run those furnaces, and maintaining the highest levels of health and safety for our workforce.

We look forward to working in partnership with our colleagues in government, the trade unions and the workforce here in Scunthorpe.

Two areas where the Conservatives have been criticising Labour’s handling of the British Steel crisis are over the cost of energy for industry in the UK and the government’s general taxation policy toward businesses.

Appearing on GB News, shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin said:

[Energy prices are] a really important issue. I’m very disappointed that this government has, for example, got rid of some of the new production of our oil and gas and I think there needs to be a rethink on this front.

I also think that in terms of the costs that this government has put on, for example, steel production, but also business right across this country; the fact that they’ve increased national insurance on everyone, they’ve increased business rates on this plant at Scunthorpe.

It just shows that they’re not backing business, that what we’ve got here is actually a government by the unions, of the unions and for the unions.

Another opposition frontbencher, Andrew Griffith, the shadow secretary of state for business and trade, has also joined in. On social media he has responded to a quote suggesting Keir Starmer would protect jobs and businesses by posting “And yet Ed Miliband is still serving in his cabinet …” in a reference to net zero policies.

Treasury minister James Murray was also pressed on this during his interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Presenter Nick Robinson said to him that the country has high energy costs because “successive governments have insisted on what you call green energy, driving those prices up and make it unsustainable to produce steel, whereas China, they don’t have that problem. They kept their coalmines open. They continue to produce power from coal, as they do in India as well. And what we do is buy other people’s coal, buy other people’s steel, which isn’t helping the planet at all.”

Murray responded by saying “We need to make sure that the future of steel making in the UK is sustainable, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing down energy costs for businesses.”

He claimed the government had planned an investment of £5bn over ten years “to help the energy intensive industries with the high cost of energy.”

He said “making sure that we have energy independence and energy security here in the UK is critical for businesses and for households, to bring down bills.”

Andy Prendergast, national secretary of the GMB union, has spoken to PA Media about his understanding of the situation, telling the news agency he was “hopeful” that the materials needed to keep furnaces at the Scunthorpe steel plant burning will be delivered in the next 48 hours.

He said:

Where we are at the moment is that we’re confident that the deal being done with the raw materials, and the steps being taken will get there on time, and ultimately that has the potential to preserve the future for the plant.

There still needs to be a deal to be done for the future. Whether that’s our preference – which is nationalisation of what is a key national asset – or whether that’s a genuine private investor who’s willing to come in and put the money.

I think for us the key thing is that we keep this plant going and keep virgin steel-making capacity in the UK.

We’re being told it’s going to come in good time, so we’re hopeful that it’s the next 48 hours but we haven’t had confirmation of that. However, we believe the steps taken would be meaningless if there weren’t the logistics in place to get it to the plant on time.

As a reminder, the plant, which is the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel in England, needs raw materials within the next fortnight, including iron pellets and coking coal, or else it faces the prospect of the furnaces cooling to a point where it is neither easy nor cost-effective to bring them back.

Treasury minister James Murray has criticised previous Conservative governments for their approaches to relations with China, saying that the current Labour administration needed to be “cool-headed, clear-eyed and pragmatic” in its dealings with the country, as there were significant economic implications.

Asked outright on LBC radio if, in the wake of the British Steel crisis, the government should be treating China as a hostile state akin to Russia or Iran, Murray said “No. China is not a hostile state.”

He continued, telling listeners:

China is a country with whom we have a large important relationship. We need to be pragmatic about it and understand that we have different ways of interacting with China in different areas of our relationship.

China is the second-biggest economy in the world, fourth-biggest trading partner for the UK, and there are 450,000 jobs in Britain that depend on exports to China, so we need to engage with them.

But I think if you look at what’s happened in recent years under the previous governments it either arguably was too naive and too “not eyes open” under Cameron and Osborne, and more recently in the latter days of the previous government, there was no engagement at all.

And I think neither of those are quite the right approach. We need to be cool-headed and clear-eyed and pragmatic about this, and realise there areas where we’re going to cooperate, some where we’re going to compete and others where we’ll challenge.

Also on the morning media round today was shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin, who endured a torrid time on Sky News while being repeatedly pressed to acknowledge any culpability for the British Steel crisis by the previous Conservative administration that sold the company to current Chinese owners Jingye in 2019.

The MP for West Worcestershire was told the appearance was “a wonderful opportunity for you here right now, with our viewers on Sky News, to say, look, it was a mistake. We understand that, and we support the government. Do you want to do that this morning?”

Baldwin replied:

Well, I think that, you know, I know that it was looked at very rigorously at the time. It was welcomed by the unions. And I think we need to recognise that 2025 is very different from 2019. And we need to focus on the future of this critical national infrastructure in this industry in our country.

Asked if the opposition would back full nationalisation of the plant in Scunthorpe if the alternative was for it to go completely under, Baldwin said:

I think it’s always got to be a last resort. But, you know, there was a period when the government owned it, before Jingye came in, and so I think you should never have anything off the table, but I think that does need to be a last resort.

When it was again pointed out that the Conservatives did the deal to sell the business to Jingye, Baldwin said:

It was a deal that was welcomed by the unions and local communities at the time. So can we put that in the past and focus on the future of this critical industry.

She accused the Labour government of “scrambling at the last minute, scrambling to recall parliament, and scrambling to run a steel company now,” claiming “that shows that this is a failure of negotiation by the current government.”

Baldwin was then asked “Is this a wider problem of privatisation for the Conservatives. You know, we look at Thames Water and what’s happening here. This is a failure of 14 years of Conservative rule, isn’t it not?”

The MP replied:

I think there’s a general consensus. If you hear the chancellor today talking about investment in our infrastructure, she’s always looking for partnerships with private equity capital. She’s looking for your pension and my pension to be investing in some of these infrastructure.

I think there is always going to be a role for private capital in all of these organisations. And I think it means that there’s less competition in terms of financing for the schools, for the hospitals, which do require exclusive public funding.

So yes, I think there’s always going to be a role for private investment, and I think that’s an argument that’s already been won.

The UK government’s intervention to try to keep the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe running has drawn some criticism from the SNP, who have attempted to compare it unfavourably with the treatment of the potential closure of Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn challenged business secretary Jonathan Reynolds over it in parliament in London on Saturday.

Labour’s Midlothian MP, Kirsty McNeill, who also acts as parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland, commented on the row while appearing on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme.

Claiming that the previous Conservative administration in Westminster and the Scottish government had “no industrial strategy to speak of”, she told listeners:

These situations are different, which is why this interventionist UK government has an industrial strategy that matches solutions to the problems at hand.

I would contrast the speed with which they [the SNP] can take to social media and take to the airwaves to air their grievances and the speed at which they move to secure Scottish jobs.

In the end, they’re having a conversation about Grangemouth today because they’re manufacturing a grievance. We, by contrast have taken serious action from the minute we got in.

Peter Walker is a senior political correspondent at the Guardian

A Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.

Wera Hobhouse, who was turned back by officials on Thursday, said she was given no explanation as to why this happened, and could only assume that it was because she had spoken out about rights abuses by China.

Hobhouse told Sky News that after she and her husband arrived, he was quickly given permission to stay but that she was asked to step aside. The couple’s son, a university academic, lives in Hong Kong, and they hoped to see their three-month-old grandson.

“And at the end of about three hours, my husband was told he was free to go but I was denied entry, and I was going to go back on the next plane home,” Hobhouse said.

The Bath MP said that while she tried to be “cooperative and friendly” in the expectation she would eventually be allowed in, on being told she could not, she “slightly lost it” and demanded an explanation, but was told only, “We are so sorry, Madam, we understand.”

She said: “No explanation was given to me, ever. And this is what is so chilling, and should really be a wake-up call for any parliamentarian, because I had no warning that I was on the blacklist.”

Read more of Peter Walker’s report here: UK MP refused entry to Hong Kong accuses China of ‘hidden blacklist’

Our First Edition newsletter today also has its focus on the crisis at British Steel. Here is my colleague Nimo Omer outlining where we are:

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds now holds emergency powers that enable him to compel the company to buy the raw materials it needs, with the government covering the running costs, which Jingye estimates at approximately £700,000 per day in losses.

A failure to order enough coal and iron has resulted in a shortage of vital raw materials that the plant needs imminently to remain operational. Without them, the furnaces would shut down, making closure all the more likely. Reynolds has however refused to say whether British Steel will be able to get the raw materials it needs in time.

The running costs are set to make a significant dent in the government’s £2.5bn steel fund. Reynolds said that the cost to the economy of closing the plant would have been at least £1bn, a figure he said would exceed the losses anticipated from nationalising the site.

The business secretary did not accuse Jingye of deliberately sabotaging the plant, though he did say that “it might be neglect”. The government does not expect Jingye to re-enter negotiations but Reynolds added that recent events had raised a “high trust bar” for Chinese firms seeking to invest in key British industries.

Increasing volatility in global markets, particularly in light of the Trump administration’s stance on European security and trade tariffs, has perhaps also put pressure on the government to keep the British steel industry afloat.

You can read more from Nimo Omer here: Monday briefing – is nationalisation the answer to the British Steel crisis?

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Another union official, Roy Rickhuss, who has been general secretary of the Community Union since 2013, also appeared during the media round today, talking about the government’s efforts to keep the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe in operation. He told listeners of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme:

The Chinese owners Jingye, unfortunately, were seen to be working against the business, if that’s fair to say. They weren’t ordering raw materials. Not only that, but they were refusing to pay for raw materials, and they were actually turning away raw materials and trying to transfer them elsewhere.

I think Jingye had a plan. The plan was to close the blast furnaces and they were going to import steel from China to run through our mills, and British Steel would have become what we call a re-rolling facility.

British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe employs about 2,700 people, and is the only remaining plant in the UK capable of producing the virgin steel required in major construction projects.

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer for the GMB union, has said she has been “wholly reassured” that raw materials are set to arrive at the Scunthorpe blast furnaces to ensure their continued operation.

Speaking on the BBC Breakfast programme, PA Media reports she told viewers:

I spoke to British Steel late yesterday evening and was wholly reassured, actually. I’m told that the coke that’s at Immingham Bulk Terminal will be paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days and that Government are working at pace to secure the rest of the raw materials that are currently on the ocean.

Government minister James Murray has defended the government’s decision to use taxpayer’s money to bail out the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe rather than using the money elsewhere.

In an exchange on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme where the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury was asked if the money wouldn’t be better diverted to public services, he told listeners:

If we want to build hospitals, we need steel. If we want to build 1.5m homes, we need steel. If we want to expand Heathrow, we need steel.

Steel is a really critical part of our plan for change, as well as our national security. We want to support steel making here in the UK, and that’s why we’ve intervened

We need to make sure that the future of steel making in the UK is sustainable, and we need to make sure that we’re bringing down energy costs for businesses.

A government minister has said that the owners of British Steel had “clearly behaved irresponsibly” but there was no wider lesson to be drawn about the involvement of Chinese firms in critical infrastructure in the UK.

James Murray, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said of Jingye on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that:

The company we’re talking about here, in relation to Scunthorpe, has clearly behaved irresponsibly. It became apparent in recent days that they were accelerating the closure of the blast furnaces. That’s why we had to act quickly to get the legislation in place.

But one company doesn’t speak to all companies who are based in China. And you know, we need to make clear that we are open for that investment from around the world.

After a similar line of questioning on Times Radio earlier, Murray had said “we need to be clear that we have an approach where we encourage investment from around the world, and are open to that investment and free trade, but at the same time having these very clear principles of saying when there is foreign involvement in critical infrastructure, they will receive the highest scrutiny.”