THE legislation that effectively nationalised British Steel risks being a “sticking plaster” if the company is not integrated into a wider industrial strategy, according to Labour MP Melanie Onn.

The MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes told Camilla Tominey on GB News: “I said that it risked being a sticking plaster if we didn’t think about how steel fits into the wider industrial strategy of this country. So, making sure that we’ve got a plan for British Steel that works with all of our industries that we’ve got in this country already.

“How does it fit in with automotive, how does it fit in with Labour’s house building plans? How does it fit in with our offshore wind technologies, to make sure that we’ve got an order book for British Steel in this country so that we can make the best of it, and that we have got an effective, long-term plan for steel.

“I’m quite happy with the decisions that have been made around British Steel, and I don’t know whether you’ve seen but there were scenes yesterday in Scunthorpe, after Scunthorpe had played a football match, of local steel workers and local people on the pitch celebrating the continuance of the steel industry in Scunthorpe.

“It means such a lot, and I think that the government taking decisive and quite extraordinary action to step in in the way that it has is a huge step forward. This isn’t an exclusive situation. We’ve seen things like this, where the government becomes the kind of provider of last resort in things like water companies and rail as well.

“I think that stepping in, making sure that people have got jobs to go to next week, making sure that the raw materials continue to get through, so that we see those blast furnaces continuing to burn was the essential thing that the government had to do, and I was really pleased to be in parliament yesterday to help with that.”

Asked if she thought British Steel had been sabotaged, Onn said: “Jingye took over under the last Conservative government. My understanding is there were other companies that were available who were interested in taking on the steel works at that time.

“The previous Conservative government went with Jingye, presumably thinking that Jingye were going to actually deliver the investment that they promised at the time.

“At the time, they promised that they would commit over a billion pounds worth of investment into that site and, according to local workers there, they only spent around £300 million on improvements to the site.

“And I think that there have been concerns that the focus has not been on the UK operation but has been about what can Jingye learn to utilise in China and improving production in China.

“That that has been the crux of the issue, and probably has led to some of the breakdowns in the negotiations and conversations that government have been having with Jingye…certainly it has been a real breakdown in relationships.

“The government have said that when they were negotiating with Jingye, that they didn’t feel like they were acting in good faith. And I think that that’s incredibly disappointing, because it completely disregards not only the individuals who work at the site, but the town of Scunthorpe itself and the wider northern Lincolnshire people too.”