Too little too late on steel state aid

Commenting on news that the government plans to make state aid approval to provide relief to Energy Intensive Industries from the cost of renewables policy by the end of this year. Tom Blenkinsop, Labour Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland and chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel said:

“This is too little too late from a government trying to play catch up, one sixth of the steel worker in the country have already lost their jobs and more could be under threat by the end of the year.

“Labour MP’s have made it very clear to Anna Soubry, the BIS Minister, that this is too slow and any state aid needs to happen in the next few weeks to minimise the risk to the future of the steel industry in the UK.

“I will raise this with Sajid Javid in a meeting later today (29th October), urging him and the government to act quickly, it is too late to save job losses in Redcar and only a fast acting government can save ever more steelworkers from facing redundancy.”