Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill Committee: New Clause 12
94Ayes
297Noes
Defeated · majority 203 · Government won254 did not vote
645 Members · Aye 94 · No 297 · DNV 254 · grey dots in centre are abstentions
Analysis
Commons
Commons
Parliament voted on 9 June 2026 to reject New Clause 12 to the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill during its Committee stage. The clause was defeated by 297 votes to 94. Committee stage is the line-by-line examination of a bill where MPs can propose additions or changes before the legislation proceeds further. New Clause 12 would have placed a firm cap of £2.5 billion on the total financial assistance the government can provide under the Bill, with that limit set to apply up to a specific date in 2029. Without such a provision, the Conservatives argued, the Bill creates an open-ended financial commitment with no ceiling on public spending. The clause would have meant the entire steel strategy budget could be consumed by this single nationalisation, forcing ministers to prioritise spending decisions. Its defeat means the Bill continues without any statutory upper limit on financial assistance. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 276 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the new clause; all 86 voting Conservatives supported it, joined by 4 Democratic Unionist Party MPs and 1 Traditional Unionist Voice MP. The Greens, Plaid Cymru, and Reform UK voted no, aligning with the government against the Conservative amendment. Three Independents voted for the clause, six against. The vote is one of several opposition attempts during the Bill's Committee stage to place constraints on the nationalisation, all of which have been defeated by similar margins.
Voting Aye meant
Support capping public financial assistance to British Steel at £2.5 billion, arguing the government needs spending limits and a clear exit strategy rather than unlimited, open-ended state funding.
Voting No meant
Reject the cap, backing the government's approach of retaining flexibility to provide whatever financial support British Steel requires without a fixed ceiling.
Each row is one party. The stacked bar gives the within-party split of Aye / No / Absent; the columns on the right give the raw counts. The party-line column is inferred from how cohesively each party voted, not a published whip: a clear one-way majority of a party’s voters reads as a line, a close division reads as “Split”.
Party
Party line
Aye / No / Abs
Aye
No
Abs
Labour Party
Voted No
0
249
111
Conservative and Unionist Party
Voted Aye
86
0
30
Liberal Democrats
—
0
0
71
Labour and Co-operative Party
Voted No
0
27
15
Independent
—
3
6
4
Reform UK
Voted No
0
4
4
Scottish National Party
—
0
0
7
Sinn Féin
—
0
0
7
Democratic Unionist Party
Voted Aye
4
0
1
Green Party of England and Wales
Voted No
0
5
0
Plaid Cymru
Voted No
0
4
0
Social Democratic and Labour Party
—
0
0
2
Your Party
—
0
2
0
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
—
0
0
1
Restore Britain
—
1
0
0
Speaker
—
0
0
1
Traditional Unionist Voice
—
1
0
0
Ulster Unionist Party
—
1
0
0
Source · Hansard · UK Parliament Votes API · party line inferred from voting cohesion, not a published whip; “Split” = a close within-party division
Broadly welcomes the Bill as temporary emergency action but supports amendments 7, 8, 9 and 6 to strengthen environmental liability assessment, parliamentary scrutiny of financial assistance, and explicit consideration of tariffs and carbon border adjustments in valuations.Liberal Democrats · Voted no_vote_recorded · Read full speech (4,303 words) →
Welcomes government investment in steel as essential to national security and defence capability; emphasises need for careful management of tariff regime to avoid harming downstream manufacturers and steel stockholders.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (3,547 words) →
Opposes open-ended powers and unlimited financial exposure; supports amendments capping assistance at £1m per employee over five years, requiring quarterly parliamentary reporting, limiting total assistance to £2.5bn, and establishing a duty to seek private sector purchasers.Conservative · Voted aye · Read full speech (4,684 words) →
Opposes new clause 9 (private purchaser duty) and new clause 11 (level playing field requirement) as risks to downstream steel-dependent industries; seeks exemptions or transitional arrangements for grades not domestically produced.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (1,486 words) →
Supports government intervention but warns that amendments risk procedural barriers and impediments to defence supply-chain security; emphasises need for integrated steelmaking strategy from ore through production.Labour · Voted no_vote_recorded · Read full speech (648 words) →
Defends blast furnace capability at Scunthorpe as strategically vital; questions whether NAO auditors should make sovereign capability decisions and warns that constant availability for sale destabilises business and workforce.Reform UK · Voted no · Read full speech (757 words) →
Sources
Division dataUK Parliament Votes API
DebateHansard · Commons
Stance analysisAI analysis · Claude 4.x
LicenceOpen Parliament Licence v3.0