British Steel bill becomes law as UK moves to take control of Scunthorpe plant

# British Steel bill becomes law as UK moves to take control of Scunthorpe plant

Royal assent gives ministers power to direct the company’s board and staff after Parliament rushed through an emergency act.

An emergency bill designed to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant has become law after Parliament passed the legislation and the King granted Royal Assent. The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act gives Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct the board and staff of British Steel, opening the way for ministers to take control of part of the business. Government officials were already in Scunthorpe awaiting the legal green light, and BBC reporting from the site said the atmosphere among workers was celebratory after the vote.

The speed of the move is striking. According to the BBC live coverage, the government pushed the five-page bill through Parliament in around six and a half hours. That urgency reflects how close the plant had come to closure. Reynolds said the government had "no choice but to act" after Jingye, the Chinese company that bought British Steel in 2020, said it had been suffering losses of around £700,000 a day. The legislation gives ministers the authority to intervene directly while a longer-term solution is considered.

Keir Starmer framed the decision as a national rescue, saying the government had stepped in to save British Steel and protect thousands of jobs. At the plant itself, steelworkers had kept furnaces burning while Westminster debated their future. One worker told the BBC that the fight mattered far beyond direct employees because it would affect local businesses like butchers, cafes and even the football club. Another said he had worked at the steelworks since leaving school and could not imagine working anywhere else. That local reaction shows why the plant’s fate has become so politically charged.

The government’s move also raised comparisons with Port Talbot in Wales, where Tata Steel blast furnaces had already shut down. Locals there asked why they had not seen a similar intervention. One former apprentice at Tata Steel called the British Steel rescue a "kick in the teeth" for Port Talbot, while a local shop owner said the closure had already hit the high street. Those comments underline the uneven way steel has been handled across the UK and explain why the Scunthorpe decision landed with such force.

The BBC also reported support from the Sizewell C nuclear project, whose joint managing director said British Steel is being recognized as a strategic national asset. The project expects to use more than 350,000 tonnes of steel and said its construction pipeline could exceed £650 million over the next decade. That matters because the rescue is not only about keeping one plant open. It is also about keeping enough domestic steel capacity alive for large infrastructure projects and for the wider industrial base that depends on them.

What happens next is still open, but the legal turning point has already been reached. The bill now allows the government to begin taking control of British Steel and to direct the company’s operations while it tries to secure the plant’s future. For workers on the ground, that may not settle the broader question of ownership or long-term investment. But it does mean the furnaces in Scunthorpe are no longer facing immediate closure without a government backstop.