Latest news with #ChristopherChope
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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
The Independent
14-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Ex-minister calls for quangos to face MPs' scrutiny amid Sentencing Council row
Organisations such as NHS England and the Sentencing Council should face direct scrutiny from MPs, a Conservative former minister has urged. Sir Christopher Chope said arm's-length bodies (ALBs) had gone 'rogue', including National Highways when it rolled out smart motorways, and the Sentencing Council, whose recent guidance has prompted fears of 'two-tier justice'. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has this week vowed to tackle a 'weaker than it's ever been' state as he promised to abolish NHS England and bring its oversight responsibilities into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Introducing his Arm's-Length Bodies (Accountability to Parliament) Bill, Sir Christopher said: 'It is beyond my wildest dreams that a Labour Government seems to understand at least in part the problem that ALBs present to Parliament and in particular to this House of Commons.' MPs ran out of time to vote on the proposed new law, which would enable them to debate as part of Parliament's day-to-day business the accounts and annual reports of ALBs with a budget of £5 million or more. The MP for Christchurch warned that ALBs and quangos had 'often been favoured by ministers as a way of distancing themselves from contentious issues', adding: 'The result is often a duplication of effort, resulting in turf wars between Whitehall ministries and ALBs over policy. 'Free of the need to answer to voters, ALBs can go rogue as Highways England (now National Highways) did over its promotion in the face of public opposition of so-called smart motorways.' Sir Christopher turned to the Sentencing Council, which produces guidelines to help courts set the type and length of offenders' sentences and last week recommended that a pre-sentence report will usually be necessary before handing out punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood met the council's chairman Lord Justice William Davis this week to discuss the new guidance, after she said access to pre-sentence reports should not be determined by ethnicity, culture or religion. Sir Christopher told the Commons that Lord Justice Davis should have 'conceded' defeat. He asked: 'Why have we set up a system whereby the Sentencing Council is able to dictate this type of policy, overriding the will of ministers and of elected members of Parliament?' The Labour MP for Stafford, Leigh Ingham, later intervened in his speech, and asked if Sir Christopher would 'welcome the announcement that the largest of these organisations is to be moved within ministerial oversight'. Sir Christopher replied: 'I'm absolutely delighted. I'm not ambivalent about that. I think it's really good news.' He said he had contacted NHS services in Dorset about a constituency matter with 'no response forthcoming', and suggested that this could be 'properly addressed' once NHS England is brought under ministers' direct control. 'It means that I, for example, would be able to put down questions about this, I'd be able to try and get an urgent question of the minister,' Sir Christopher said. He added that Lord Lansley, who was the health secretary when NHS England was set up, might have been 'trying to avoid' accountability. He said: 'It was an embarrassment, I think, to the Conservative governments and to the coalition government that they could be asked questions by MPs on the sort of subjects I've just raised. 'Yet what more important role is there for an MP to try and drive through those bureaucratic blocks and get delivery of what our constituents are expecting?' His private member's bill will next be listed for debate on March 28.
