SPECIAL REPORT: Will Keir Starmer save British Steel?

The News Agents

Global

Daily News, News, Government, Politics

4.2 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

In a dramatic turn of events, parliament has been recalled for MPs to discuss the future of British Steel. In Scunthorpe, some 2,700 jobs hang in the balance after the Chinese owner of the steel works said its blast furnaces are "no longer financially sustainable".

Thousands more jobs in the supply chain are also at risk - steel runs through the heart of Scunthorpe. Earlier this week, Keir Starmer declared that we have entered a "changing and completely new world" and promised to "rewire the state completely".

Does this mark the end of the era of globalisation? Could we see a more active state, stepping in to take control of vital national industries? And if so, how does that tally with the PM's remarks to The News Agents, just last month, that he wanted to see a smaller and more agile state?

Lewis has been in Scunthorpe for this special report of a town on the brink, a strategy, perhaps, turned on its head, and what it all means for Britain's industry, its people and its politics.

This special report was produced by Louis Degenhardt and Rory Symon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity.
0:08.1	This is a global player original podcast.
0:11.6	On Friday afternoon, there was some breaking news.
0:14.7	The headlines. Breaking news. Sky News understands that Parliament will be recalled tomorrow to discuss British steel in Scunthorpe.
0:23.6	Parliament recalled from its Easter recess for a highly unusual Saturday sitting to discuss the crisis in British steel.
0:31.6	The last remaining Virgin Steelworks in the UK, the home of the Industrial Revolution. Its Scumthorpe works with
0:39.2	2800 jobs on the verge of closure. Its Chinese owners wanting to walk away. In that corner of
0:47.4	North Lincolnshire, a community waits with a pause of its shared breath. As luck would have it,
0:53.5	we'd spent some time just this week
0:55.3	in Scumthorpe to get to grips with what has happened at this grand old works. It matters
1:01.1	in and of itself. It matters so much for those families, powerless in the face of massive
1:07.4	global economic forces. But it matters for the rest of us too. Steel matters
1:13.0	because it's the centre of all the industry which counts. But what happens here could also
1:19.2	tell us something about the direction of our politics, about the future of the Stama government,
1:25.1	about the political character of the age in which we find ourselves.
1:29.4	Kier Stama said this week, it was time for the British state to protect British industry.
1:35.7	Will he put his money where his mouth is?
1:38.3	Welcome to this special report from Scumthorpe, Britain's last great steel town.
1:46.8	The Newsagents from Scumthorpe, Britain's last great steel town. The news agents.
1:48.4	There are three days left, three days left to save primary steel production in Britain.
1:53.8	This government will not just sit back and hope.
1:56.9	Generations of families have worked there, but global pressures have put British steel on a rocky road.
	...

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