STEEL has a sustainable long-term future in the UK, Business Minister Matthew Hancock has insisted as he was summoned to the Commons to answer questions on the proposed sale of Tata Steel's long products business.
The company announced on Wednesday it wanted to sell off the division, which employs thousands of people at several sites in the UK- including at Dalzell and Clydebridge in Scotland, the Scunthorpe steelworks, mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington and a rail consultancy in York.
The steel giant said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Klesch Group, an industrial company which operates across Europe. Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mr Hancock said: "I can understand an announcement of this sort brings uncertainty and we will do all we reasonably can to support the companies to ensure a competitive future for the business.
"Decisions on company ownership are of course commercial matters for the companies involved - nevertheless, we are working with the metals sector to develop further our metals industrial strategy and from this side of the House, we believe there is a sustainable long term future for the steel industry in the UK."
But Labour's Frank Roy, MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, said the reality for workers in Britain's steel industry was sleepless nights and fear of the future.
He said: "That's not me talking of a doomsday scenario, that's the reality of working in heavy industry and especially the steel industry in the United Kingdom."
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