“Where was this urgency for Port Talbot?”: Welsh MPs take shots at UK government

Local TV

Welsh MPs have accused the UK Government of double standards, and want to understand why they acted with so much urgency to save Scunthorpe’s steelmaking, when the same for Port Talbot was called a ‘pipe dream’.

Transcript

00:01But what my party cannot support is his government's approach to steel in the UK,

00:06which deems that steel in Scunthorpe is worth saving, but not steel in Wales.

00:13Where was this urgency when Welsh steel communities were crying out for support?

00:19When Tata Steel announced over 2,800 job losses in Port Talbot last year,

00:24the largest steelworks in the country, a key strategic asset,

00:28the manufacturing heart of South Wales, there was no recall of Parliament,

00:32no Saturday sitting, no emergency legislation and no rapid mobilisation of government to save the day.

00:41It's been a tumultuous, complicated and controversial few days in Westminster,

00:45with the nationalisation of Scunthorpe steelworks being rushed through Parliament in a bid to protect its future.

00:51It has been widely supported throughout Parliament, but many politicians are questioning

00:55why it happened so quickly for Scunthorpe, but the same didn't happen for Port Talbot last year.

01:01The site just off the M4 cut 2,800 jobs and has left the steelworking industry in South Wales

01:07with a difficult future, with the job losses and impact on the local economy as well.

01:13Politicians have spoken out strongly about the decisions that were made for England,

01:16but not for Wales, with accusations of double standards and questions alluding to the fact

01:20that on this side of the border, it just wasn't as important.

01:25Following last year's closures of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot,

01:29many of my constituents have lost their jobs or seen their incomes fall.

01:34That includes the thousands of workers who were laid off at the plant itself,

01:38but also includes those further down the supply chain, including haulage drivers and payroll clerks,

01:44providing services to the 2,000 local businesses that have been impacted by that closure.

01:50The closure of Port Talbot's blast furnaces started an economic contraction in South Wales

01:55that is still underway.

01:57Many highly skilled workers, particularly welders, are leaving South Wales in search of opportunities elsewhere.

02:05Jonathan Reynolds, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, however,

02:08argues that Port Talbot's fate was sealed well before Labour even came to power.

02:12And despite some renegotiations, privatisation of South Wales' biggest steelworks wasn't an option.

02:18The Port Talbot deal was originally negotiated by the previous government.

02:22I did try to reopen that. I went to see Chandra in Davos.

02:25I flew to Mumbai to talk to him about it.

02:28I kept, to be frank, Port Talbot open on polling day,

02:31because it would have closed because of industrial action that almost took place.

02:34The present government were absolutely nowhere to be seen even before the result of the election was in.

02:41We were not able to reopen the deal, but we did negotiate a better deal.

02:46And just to be clear, as a result of that, Port Talbot is in a stronger position than the British deal,

02:51because it has that long-term future in place, because we improved the deal that she butched at that time.

02:59Thank you for the report.

03:00Thank you for tuning in.

03:03ろい армист

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