Race to save British Steel amid fears of Chinese owners' 'sabotage'
The government's emergency takeover of British Steel could lead to the UK re-examining China's relationship with Britain's critical industries.
Parliament passed an extraordinary bill on Saturday that gave the government the power to force owners of steel companies in the country to keep their sites working.
The government feared that the Chinese owner of the Scunthorpe-based British Steel workers were deliberately trying to cause it to break down.
In an interview with the BBC, business minister Jonathan Reynolds accused Jingye of not buying the raw materials necessary to keep the blast furnaces working, and in some cases even selling off excess.
If the blast furnaces ever turn off they can never be turned back on. The government is currently racing to find the materials required.
Sir Christopher Chope, a Tory MP, told Times Radio that shutting down British Steel was Jingye's plan and said they wanted to "sabotage" the UK's ability to produce virgin steel so they it would be forced to rely on Chinese imports.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told the Times that Beijing tried to undermine the industrial base of other countries all over the world. But he added: "Yet we keep handing Beijing the tools of our own demise. British Steel must be the canary in the coalmine for all Chinese investment in UK critical infrastructure."
Read more about the British Steel crisis below. Click the headlines to skip ahead
> Race to keep British Steel furnaces running
> Network Rail stockpiles year's worth of rails
> Why the UK is saving British Steel - but didn't save Port Talbot
> What happened with British Steel's Chinese owners?
Last-minute efforts to keep British Steel operating are to be carried out today, as the plant races to secure a supply of raw materials.
The Department for Business and Trade said officials are working to secure supplies of materials, including coking coal, to keep British Steel operational, as well as to ensure all staff will be paid.
Companies including Tata - which ran the now-closed Port Talbot steelworks - and Rainham Steel have offered managerial support and materials to keep the Lincolnshire site running.
Read the full story from Sky News
Network Rail has built up a stockpile of rails to last as long as a year in case of disruption in the supply from British Steel's Scunthorpe works.
The company, which manages Britain's railway tracks, has been stockpiling rails over the past 12 months as British Steel started to contemplate the closure of its two blast furnaces. The rails are stored at depots around the country.
Read the full story from the Guardian
While Westminster has stepped in to save the blast furnaces and primary steelmaking at British Steel in Scunthorpe with emergency legislation, a deal was done with the owners of the Port Talbot plant which allowed the blast furnaces to be closed and the site to switch to electric arc recycling of existing steel.
The Government has said there was no deal on the table with the Chinese owners of British Steel in Scunthorpe so it had to take emergency action to maintain a steelmaking capacity in the UK, but the Indian owners of Tata in Port Talbot were prepared to negotiate and had a plan for the site.
Read the full story from Wales Online
The UK government has moved to take control of British Steel following fears that the blast furnaces at its Chinese-owned site in Scunthorpe could be at risk of shutting down.
Parliament approved the plans to seize control of the site after Sir Keir Starmer called for the Commons to hold its first Saturday sitting since the Falklands War in 1982.
Read the full explainer from the Independent
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