Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill Committee: New Clause 4

Parliament rejected New Clause 4 to the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill on 9 June 2026, during the committee stage of the whole House. The clause was defeated by 287 votes to 157. The vote is one of several the House took across two days of committee consideration of the Bill. The Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill provides the legislative framework for bringing British Steel into public ownership, including provisions for compensation to current owners and financial assistance powers for the Secretary of State. The wider debate on the day focused heavily on scrutiny of those financial powers, with opposition amendments seeking to constrain what some described as a blank-cheque approach to taxpayer liability. The surrounding debate also touched on environmental liabilities, with Liberal Democrat amendments (7, 8 and 9) seeking to require an independent valuer to assess the environmental costs of the steel undertaking before compensation could be paid. New Clause 4 was not itself debated in the extracts available, but it was voted on alongside those scrutiny-focused provisions. The vote divided sharply along government-versus-opposition lines. All 277 Labour and Labour and Co-operative Party MPs who voted did so against the clause. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, the Democratic Unionist Party and Traditional Unionist Voice all voted in favour, producing the 157 ayes. Reform UK and the Greens joined Labour in the no lobby. No Labour MP crossed the floor. The result follows the same pattern as every other committee-stage division on this Bill on 8 and 9 June, in each of which the Government's large Commons majority comfortably defeated opposition amendments and new clauses.