My Lords, these are indeed important amendments. It is a tragedy what has been happening to our steel industry in this country. It suffered considerable decline under the last Government thanks to very high energy prices and decarbonisation, which turned out to be disruptive. In the last full year of the Conservatives, we were down to 5.6 million tonnes of manufactured steel—around half our requirement.
There has now been a further very big collapse, such that our output last year was, I think, around half of that in 2023—around 2.5 million tonnes—and we are heading for an even smaller output this year unless the business plan is provided, kicks in and starts to do something to help the ailing Scunthorpe business that we are talking about. I think we are united in our belief that this is not what we want from our steel industry. It means that we have a chronic dependence—in the last year, 7.1 million tonnes—on imported steel and we are heading to a position where we import practically all our steel. I fear we will discover that, unless we do something about electricity prices, even when electric arc production starts to kick in on a bit of a bigger scale, it will be very difficult to sell that steel at a profit because the electricity costs are unrealistic and uncompetitive, as well as the general carbon taxes and carbon costs, which have been adversely affecting the blast furnaces.
Given our common interest in saving jobs and having a better steel sector, I again urge the Government to provide that plan and that thought-through work, which should be shared without the commercial secrets with the wider public and both Houses of Parliament. This would give us some confidence that there is a way out of this very deep tunnel that we are going down to producing less and less steel of our own.
The Government have clearly introduced very penal tariffs on importing steel from non-EU sources, with the 50% increase in tariff. They hope that that will change the situation but, because they have relaxed the quotas for the EU, I suspect that we are still extremely vulnerable to EU import competition at a time when our industry is not properly competitive. They will find that the tariffs will not protect the diminishing British steel industry, but that the much bigger and somewhat stronger steel-using industries in the United Kingdom will be very gravely affected, because more than half our imported steel may well have to come from sources that do attract tariffs. That will be very penal and, therefore, will reduce the amount of steel-using activity that we can undertake.
I urge the Government to take some of these points seriously. I am glad that two sensible amendments have been put forward to concentrate this debate.
July 2, 2026
Well said. Insane steel & industrial suicide from this government. We had far too much of this from the Tories even before Labour were gifted their huge majority by Sunak (gifted six months early for some reason)..
July 2, 2026
But but but, Milibrains is salivating. Another high
CO2 emitting industry destroyed. All going to plan.
Have you read the seventh climate change document. Next on the list is agriculturar, farms to reduce heads of cattle by 30%, grow lentils etc
Where does that leave our trade agreement with Australia having unlimited access to our beef market. Of course the emissions count against Australia not the UK. Never mind the loss of jobs and currency involved.
This whole climate scam is designed to bankrupt us and Parliament cheers it on.
July 2, 2026
Is Miliband a lying crook or has he really fallen for the CO2 vast exaggerated religion?
The things he pushes (evs, “renewables”, public transport, wood imported for Drax, buses, trains, walking save little or no CO2 they at best just export it which is no advantage at all. Even a doubling of CO2 levels is not a problem anyway see Prof Happer.
July 2, 2026
Regarding, steel, I don’t know how accurate this is or not, but Sweden, per capita, is one of the most successful steel-producing countries in the western world. And is now focused on Green Steel (producing steel from green energy)!
There is no doubt that green energy does have a role to play in our economy. It’s a question of not allowing the Greenies to dictate the agenda. But where we are slowly weaned off fossil fuels. Anything too radical could be catastrophic to our economy.
Being anti fossil fuels isn’t just about CO2, but also how fossil fuels are seen as a bit like red necks driving their noisy gas guzzlers in the USA that have gone relatively out of fashion and where technologist capitalists such as Elon Musk want to combine green energy with sleek, quiet technology – in particular in our cities where people want technology (cars etc) to be quiet and not to pump smoke into their face whilst jogging to the park.
Something like that. So fossil-fuel tech is becoming ‘unfashionable’ with the modern, metropolitan uber population – not just with anti-CO2 Greenies.
July 2, 2026
Globally there has been an increase in the percentage of energy created by using fossil fuels from 82% in 1980 to nearly 86% in 2025
July 2, 2026
I have nothing against so called green energy (not that it is really very “Green”) I just want it not to be subsidised and to have compete where it can compete without a rigged market. The market currently is hugely rigged and this does not save any significant CO2 and CO2 (the gas of nearly all life on earth) is not a real problem anyway.
July 2, 2026
@Ed M – at the moment steel from electricity is not the grade required for infrastructure and defence, brilliant for recycling. Sweden is in a fortunate position that 30% of its energy comes from Nuclear, 38% via Hydro.
Sweden along with France supply the UK’s defence Industry with the quality steel the UK has banned.
July 2, 2026
Sam
‘Globally there has been an increase in the percentage of energy created by using fossil fuels from 82% in 1980 to nearly 86% in 2025’
– That’s great! I’m pro fossil fuels. But not 100%. I’m not a red-neck gas guzzler with the badge and cap to prove it!
I’m perhaps a 90% fossil-fuel man who sees fossil fuels on the slow decline (whether we like it or not – for lots of different reasons).
And that we have to keep an eye open for what’s going on in Green energy and TECH (and where we can make money here).
July 2, 2026
But it isn’t on a slow decline Ed
Maybe here in the UK…and at a huge economic disadvantage to our industry whereas in other countries they just carry on.
July 2, 2026
Ian B
‘Sweden is in a fortunate position that 30% of its energy comes from Nuclear, 38% via Hydro’
– OK, so things to be learned from Sweden regarding non-fossil-fuel energy. One of the ‘greenest’ countries in the world whilst still a leader in steel production etc (and their own quality-branded cars – in particular Volvo – like the Germans etc).
And a lot to be learned from how they do politics (although I don’t like their WOKE stuff).
July 3, 2026
@Ed M – Volvo is not Swedish it is 100% Chinese( Geely), its the same entity that own 100% of Lotus. The same Lotus were King Charles had his Wuhan China designed and manufactured supplied from. The same company the the US Administration has sort to ban due to their vehicles being monitored and controlled directly from China.
But yes Sweden as a result of its natural resources is and always will be what some call ‘green’ as it makes economic sense.
July 3, 2026
@Ed M
By coincidence
Special forces ban Chinese electric cars over spying fears
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/03/special-forces-bans-chinese-cars-spying-fears-volvo/
along China’s Yutong buses after Norway and Denmark found they can be controlled remotely by the manufacturer
And the King gets to drive and own one of their cars,from the news about a year ago – King Charles III of the United Kingdom has expanded his distinguished collection of luxury vehicles with the acquisition of a high-performance electric car manufactured in Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WEDZ).
July 3, 2026
Ian,
Volvo is not Swedish’ – Fair point. But it’s still headquartered in Sweden.
However Volvo Group is still Swedish. And a bigger company.
July 3, 2026
Sam
‘But it isn’t on a slow decline Ed’
– Not so!
– Green energy improving all time as alternative, and dropping hugely in cost
– The problem of insecurity of dependence on fossil fuels in countries where they are governed by insecure regimes etc (Russia, Middle East, Africa, South America)
– The big surge in people adopting green tech
Like I said before I am a fossil-fuel man. But 90%. Not 100%!
‘Maybe here in the UK…and at a huge economic disadvantage to our industry whereas in other countries they just carry on’ – this is a straw man. Like I said before, I am a fossil-fuel man. But not 100%. Only 90%. Your argument here only works if you are addressing it to someone who is essential anti fossil fuels. Therefore your point is a a NON SEQUITUR. And like you’re addressing me from a script as opposed to responding to the more nuanced point I’m making.
July 2, 2026
Uk manmade emissions are less than 1% of the worlds, manmade emissions are circa 4% of total the rest is natural (So 0.04%) and the Miliband things that he thinks reduce CO2 do not really do so much if at all anyway.
July 2, 2026
@Lifelogic – its amusing one of the UK’s largest strawberry farms 26 acres under glass has to manufacture CO2 to help with growth
July 3, 2026
@Ian
Indeed food for trees, plants, seaweed, crops and stawberries. It is very common to enrich greenhouses with extra CO2 food so as to increase yields. Historically we live in a dearth period for atmospheric CO2.
July 2, 2026
Yes, Happer & Wijngaarden have shown, using the IPCC’s own radiative warming theory, that there is already sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to absorb all the planet’s emitted IR radiation that it can and hence adding more CO2 adds little, if any difference. An effect known as saturation and is akin to adding more sheets of kitchen paper to a spill once the first few sheets have mopped up the liquid. On the other hand, Shula and Ott have a very compelling argument that the IPCC’s radiative warming theory is invalid because thermalisation at the planet’s surface converts the emitted radiation into sensible heat which is taken up into the upper atmosphere by convection and not by radiative transfer. Either way, water vapour is the biggest of the greenhouse gases, being 10 to 100 times more abundant in the atmosphere than CO2 and also absorbing far more of the planet’s IR emissions and consequently is by far the main greenhouse gas which keeps the planet warmer and at the same time radiates excess energy to space.
July 2, 2026
Parliament is systemically treacherous.
July 2, 2026
Despite having a PPE Oxon degree, Ed Miliband actually did get half decent A levels in Maths, Further Maths and Physics and from an ordinary state school, so very hard to believe he honestly cannot see how obviously mad the manmade CO2 climate alarmist, bogus science exaggerated lunacy obviously is?
July 2, 2026
@LIFELOGIC – he supports his sponsors
July 2, 2026
I see the NESO business model is in full flow. After days of importing between 10 and 25% of our power on average at £115 per mwh, today we are exporting at £23 per mwh. Insane.
Remember milibrains is guaranteeing between 95 and £250 per mwh to new renewables it becomes a joke of a business model.
July 2, 2026
+1
July 2, 2026
The bitter truth is without low cost reliable energy available 24/7 there will never be an industrial recovery in this country.
Talking about any single industry as in this case steel production is the same as talking about all manufacturing.
Ceramics, cement, chemicals, aluminium, glass, component manufacturing, car production, road maintenance, etc are all negatively impacted by high energy cost and will all close as foreign competitors are able to offer products produces in low energy cost regimes from across the world.
We had better wake up to our future fate very quickly, because we do not have much time left before our purchasing power is lost because we are no longer generating wealth to support our currency.
July 2, 2026
The woke answer to cheaper imports coming from countries who do not follow our Net Zero laws is CBAM where an additional import tax will be added to account for the CO2 emitted in those countries. We are to move to a “just transition” where the only energy available is electricity and it will be intermittent, expensive and rationed using smart meters.
July 2, 2026
I fear we will lose all steel production capabilities for the sole reason that the socialist government is bereft of any business acumen. Surely they MUST seek advice from such knowledgeable quarters?
Or do they still practice with the standard socialist dogma that government always knows best? Such dogma brought an end to the USSR, and we’ll go the same way IF they do not seek advice from the experienced experts who may still be in abundance in this country.
However, I fear that too many have since abandoned the UK, driven out by the outrageously high taxes on their businesses and earnings.
This wretched socialist government is actually successfully doing the job ( words left out ed)Bringing GB to its knees and without any bombs and bullets, which apparently are also in short supply along with the other vitals for a solid defence of OUR nation.
And we have three more years of this to come? Who will bail us out this time?
July 2, 2026
Ministers Peter Kyle and Chris McDonald are probably higher calibre operators than typically limp Labour wasters, but what are they doing that is effective when the rest of Labour performs like a soggy heavy blanket on progress instead of doing what is needed?
July 2, 2026
The only reason we still have any steel production in this country is because Starmer couldn’t face down the unions or his own leftwing backbenchers. How could he tell them that it was the UK’s destiny to get out of the steel making business?
But why are so many ignorant of this fact? Along with so many other industries in this country, steel will soon go the way of the dodo, not because it couldn’t adapt or because they were unproductive. HMG has demanded it. The plans are there for all to see. HMG is deliberately destroying not just our industry and our way of life, but also everything worthwhile about the UK, our future.
HMG is temporarily keeping the steel plants going at a huge cost to the taxpayer, and already the Chinese are demanding £1Bn in compensation, while we import ever more steel – WHAT a dreadful mess!
According to the plans in ABSOLUTE ZERO, delivering zero emissions with today’s technologies requires the phasing out of flying, shipping, lamb and beef, blast-furnace steel and cement. Despite the fact that our emissions won’t make any difference to global Co2.
Now tell me that this labour government are truly going to stimulate the economy and have nothing but our best interests at heart!
July 2, 2026
The tragedy of the UK Parliament and its Government they just don’t understand ‘markets’. Open to competition means good supply at the right price.
Handing any industry over (as that what happens) to essentially a competitor works against the ‘market’. The UK Parliament and its Government also think big is best, so handing things to a large competitor is a given without further analysis.
In the situation with UK Steel Production, UK facilities were handed to large UK competitors that have the enviable luxury of being protected in their home markets. From the ‘get-go’ it was for them about more protection, extending their home production by removing a market place competitor. All the better the UK as the new host would chuck taxpayer money their way, ultimately be cajoled into buying from the home countries own production – the only aim.
The other way that the UK Parliament and its Government destroy the UK and its People is it allows these strategic security assets to go, to those that are not so high on the ‘friends’ list. Then couple that with the so-called take-over/buy-in is anything but, there is never money coming in for these purchase’s, never money available to invest and grow – a loan is arrange to cover the price then everything within the operation is sold/hocked to pay down the debt. So, a square one situation, purchases by competitors are about the removal from the market, never growing the market, never growing the acquired business. The proof is writ large every purchase in the last quarter of a century and more by those outside foreign operators especially those involving the UK needs its strategic security assets has been a disaster, it has simply handed other countries the ability to profit from the UK Parliament and its Governments ineptitude. Along with destroying UK jobs and prosperity
July 2, 2026
Another day, another nail in the coffin of UK industry, and another reason not to invest in the UK !
July 2, 2026
An interesting interview with Nigel Farage on you tube worth a view
“Farage on the Record” with Nick Ferrari
He agrees with you John about the fiasco of the “Exchange Rate Mechanism” failure, which encourages him into politics.
July 2, 2026
‘to provide that plan and that thought-through work’ – Sounding cynical the plan is working the UK Parliament is handing over strategic security assets to Foreign often State subsidised protected entities at the expense of the UK’s security and UK jobs. The UK Parliament doesn’t do or understand business. The UK Parliament doesn’t do creation it does destruction.
How much taxpayer money has gone into funding these Foreign Industries that are protected in their Home Markets? Where is the reciprocity?
I am against nationalisation particularly when a ‘market place’ exists they just do not make sense and they always fail because UK Government don’t do and can’t do business. Much talk of ‘sovereign wealth funds’ so if the money the UK Parliament expels from the UK on stupidity was funnelled into facilitating what is termed ‘management buyouts’ would solve the situation short and long term. Give the workers the option of securing their future has more motivation than giving a foreign industry a chance to remove a competitor. A fund or guarantee that could pickup where banks were not comfortable is a simple and ‘cheap’ remedy. The motivation for success is then in the hands of those that ‘do’
July 2, 2026
A reminder of how out of touch with reality the UK Parliament and its Government is, a UK important resource needed for the essential ‘strategic security and safety’ of the UK especially in the light of the latest ‘Defence Review’ with its focus on unmanned combat machines, missiles, arm’s length defence – is the computer tech to run them. Along with much needed high-quality steel that is now imported from France and elsewhere for our defence and infrastructure, there is the need for computer technology and the ‘means to power it’. All the pieces of equipment envisaged without exception in the ‘defence review’ rely on the output from ARM Holdings – none of it will function without them. Under the Tories Mrs May in 2016 let ARM escape for just £24.3 billion, today in 2026 it is worth $378 billion. The damaging bit is the purchaser back then ‘gave’ China access to all ARM’s tech and IP, so China has caught up. So yet again the UK Parliament and its Government set out to cripple the UK and impoverish its People.
It is happening so often it can no longer be just seen as ineptitude, it has become malicious.
July 2, 2026
Parliament is systemically treacherous. Just look at the Chagos giveaway, another gift to China. The reason why Hinkley point C is so expensive is because Cameron, Osborne and Davey decided to use Chinese finance at 9% instead of UK taxpayer funding at 2% (the rate at the time). Professor Sir Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at Oxford University, told the BBC in 2018 that the cost of HPC would have been halved if the Government had borrowed the money itself at 2% instead of using Chinese capital at 9%:
Exactly the same EDF EPR technology was used to build a plant at Olkiluoto, Finland, which according to the Chair of the Energy Security & Net Zero Committee in an oral evidence meeting 15/11/2023 (Q142) is supplying electricity at £53/MWhr which is far below either the current CfD cost of HPC at £131/MWhr or the latest fixed offshore AR7 wind CfD at £97/MWhr. The Finnish used a RAB method for financing, which has now been chosen to finance Sizewell C.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44363366
https://register.lowcarboncontracts.uk/?search=Hinkley
https://register.lowcarboncontracts.uk/?search=offshore+wind
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13815/pdf/
July 2, 2026
The collapse of British Steel was caused by the deliberate de-industrialisation policy of the Net Zero by 2050 legislation enacted by PM May without a proper debate, without a vote, without a costing and without a referendum. The survival of British Steel is paramount not only because it is needed for general building and manufacturing but to make primary steel for munitions. Possibly even more important for our survival is access to cheap and abundant energy which the woke Net Zero Strategy is destroying only to replace in its “just transition” with prohibitively expensive and rationed electricity generated by weather dependent, chaotically intermittent renewables. These so-called renewables are not “renewable” or “sustainable” and only exist because they are manufactured in China using cheap coal power, slave labour and ignoring all the environmental damage caused by mining and the toxic manufacturing tailing lakes. They could not be built using renewable energy in the UK (see David Turver’s “Why ERoEI Matters”) and we will become entirely dependent upon China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”, for their maintenance and replacement every 20 years. Renewable energy is not even used in their maintenance out in the North Sea. Electricity generation from nuclear is already half the price from that of wind (everywhere in the world except the UK) and has an energy density 1000 times that of wind energy. Our North Sea wind turbines are destined to become stranded liabilities and useless for powering a manufacturing economy or even a steel plant.
July 2, 2026
The £1bn asked for by the Chinese is because of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement clause part of the original contract. The UK governments have signed many such contracts since the inception of ISDS in the mid-‘90s.
In 2022 these Bilateral Investment Treaties (83 of them) were covering £195 bn of UK investment overseas.
It would seem that by December 2025 the UK never had to pay ISDS fine for incoming Foreign Direct Investment despite an ongoing ISDS claim by Singapore for a coal mining in Cumbria and now £1 bn by China for the steel plant.
July 2, 2026
what did anyone expect when we have allowed Indian nationals to buy our pollution quotas and to move them abroad?
when we have the most expensive electricity on the planet?
July 2, 2026
Thank you for your attention to this. It seems a thankless task to make people take notice. Have you been asked by any MSM to discuss this important lobbying? So many businesses close in the UK because people don’t take an interest until it’s too late.
July 2, 2026
Collapse of UK Steel? Is it a surprise given that Net Zero was legislated to achieve this?
Premeditated Industrial Destruction?
How the UK destroyed its industry and a plan to reverse this
https://gbbc.uk/uk-deindustrialisation-energy-policy/
July 2, 2026
O/T uk.entrepreneur.com 08/09/2025 ‘Where is the UK’s Mistral?’
en.wikipedia.org ‘Mistral AI’.