Every named vote in the Commons.
Each row is a decision Parliament was asked to take — what it meant, who voted which way, and what it changed. Use this to trace the paper trail behind any bill.
Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill: Reasoned Amendment to Second Reading
Parliament voted on 21 May 2026 on a Reasoned Amendment to the Steel Industry (Nationalisation) Bill at its Second Reading. A Reasoned Amendment is a procedural device that formally states objections to a bill and, if passed, blocks it from advancing. The amendment, moved by shadow minister Andrew Griffith, sought to decline the bill a Second Reading on grounds including that politicians should not run businesses, that nationalisation would deter inward investment, that the bill exposed taxpayers to unlimited liabilities, and that the powers granted to ministers were wider than necessary. The amendment was defeated by 242 votes to 68, allowing the bill to proceed to further parliamentary scrutiny. The bill, if enacted, would give the Secretary of State the power to bring steel undertakings into public ownership where a public interest test is met. The immediate application is British Steel, which the government had already moved to protect through the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025. The bill's passage to Committee stage means the nationalisation of British Steel can proceed, securing the Scunthorpe site and its workforce in the short term. Opponents argued the bill exposes taxpayers to open-ended costs and that tariff measures accompanying the policy risk damaging downstream industries in aerospace, automotive and defence supply chains that rely on imported specialist steel grades not produced domestically. Labour MPs voted unanimously for the bill to proceed, with 211 voting against the amendment and no Labour member supporting it. All 69 Conservative MPs who voted backed the amendment. Reform UK's five voting members sided with the government against the amendment, as did the two Green MPs and two Independent MPs, reflecting a broad pro-nationalisation coalition beyond Labour's own ranks. One Independent MP voted with the Conservatives. The bill sits in a broader context of the government's industrial strategy and follows Parliament being recalled in 2025 to pass emergency legislation to keep British Steel's blast furnaces operational after negotiations with the Chinese owner Jingye broke down.