The Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said that the Chinese owners of British Steel wanted to keep control of steel plants despite planning to close down the Scunthorpe blast furnaces.
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The Reform leader said that he believes China has deliberately sabotaged British Steel and he is “100% certain.”
The Business Secretary has now ruled out that Chinese companies will be allowed to run British Steel again.
The Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of sabotaging British Steel.
Farage told Laura Kuenssberg, “This is a big strategic decision by the CCP.”
He was asked if he has any evidence to support this claim, he responded with, “You can call it intuition if you like.
“I am 100% certain they bought British Steel to close British Steel.”
Reynolds told Sky News, “I was negotiating in good faith, and believed that they were.
“We were quite far apart to be clear. We made a substantial offer that was comparable to the work we did with Tata.”
Phillips asked Reynolds, “This half a billion you offered them?”
Mr Reynolds replied: “Yes, effectively. Their request was for more than double that.
“I had never, until fairly recently, had it put to me by them the option that they would wish to retain four very important mills – Network Rail gets 95% of its needs from one of those mills, for instance – but lose the blast furnace and supply direct from China.”
Phillips asked, “Jingye is said to be strongly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party, you yourself used some very bright language about the company.
“This morning, you have said, more or less, they were extortionists.
“Do you detect the hand of the Chinese Government, or the Chinese Communist Party?”
The Business Secretary said, “I’m not accusing the Chinese state of being directly behind this. I actually think they will understand why we could not accept the proposition that was put to us, in terms of losing that essential national capacity.”
He added that there is now a “high trust bar” when it comes to Chinese firms running British businesses.
When asked if the government trusts Chinese companies after the way Jingye business methods, Reynolds said, “I think we have got to be clear about what is the sort of sector where, actually, we can promote and co-operate, and ones frankly where we can’t. I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.”
He added, “I think steel is a very sensitive area. I don’t know when the Boris Johnson government did this, what the situation was, but it’s a sensitive area.”
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government “stepped in to save British Steel.”
Starmer added, “We are acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers, and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry.”
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