Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Thursday the 27th of March, MPs were worried about the future of steelmaking in the UK.

There is a concept of a lucky chancellor, one who's in charge of the Treasury,

just as events at home and abroad all

come together to create a sunny economic outlook. So maybe Rachel Reeves has been walking

under ladders and smashing mirrors. Within hours of making her announcement to repair

some of the buffets to the economy, President Trump had announced 25% tariffs on all car imports,

including from the UK. And by the morning, British Steel had announced plans to close its

two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, with a potential loss of nearly 3,000 jobs. The business

minister, Sarah Jones Jones sounded pretty disappointed.

This is not what we wanted and I know how worrying this will be for all those involved.

British Steel has been owned by the Chinese firm Jing Ye for the past five years.

Sarah Jones said the government was offering a 500 million pound cash injection. But that's been rejected.

Apparently, the firm wants double that.

I call on the company to reconsider their plans to announce early closures, accept our conditions

and accept our generous offer, which remains on the table.

Her conservative shadow, Greg Smith, was

skeptical about how the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds was handling this. It takes a special

something to be able to offer someone 500 million pounds and for them to reject it. But whatever

it is, I guess the business secretary has it.

Whenever Labour negotiates, Britain loses.

So he questioned the government's ability to negotiate a tariff-free trade deal with the United States either.

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