Speeches by Jones.

“I thank my hon. Friend for that conversation and all her work with the steel industry in her constituency. The steel strategy that we are putting together, which will be published in the spring with £2.5 billion to invest, will consider how to stimulate demand, use research and development and get the most out of scrap…”

“I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are not sitting on our hands, and there is a good reason why it would not be right to comment in this place on the internal negotiations between this Government and the United States. We will rightly keep a cool head in those conversations and ensure that we are ultimately doin…”

“I do not want to insult this House by suggesting that there was any kind of deal on the table under the previous Government and that anything happened on steel other than a halving of production over the last decade—a halving. Lots of things shut down and closed during that period, not just in the steel industry but in…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his question and his contribution through the Select Committee session we had yesterday. The TRA announced yesterday that it will widen its review of UK steel defences. It has accepted the challenge from UK Steel to do just that and is acting. The Secretary of State and others will be l…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for the manner in which he has represented his constituents today and engaged with us previously. On the point of clarity, I confirm that we would rather the blast furnaces remained open. He knows that if they closed before a supply of steel were secured, that would be significant in terms of…”

“First, my thoughts are, and the thoughts of all hon. Members will be, with British Steel workers and their families, following the company’s announcement of plans to close the blast furnaces and other steelmaking assets at Scunthorpe, and its commercial decision to consult on redundancies. This is not what we wanted, a…”

“I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the trade unions—GMB, Community and Unite—which we have been working with closely. We have been discussing their plan. As I say, our preference is that British Steel accepts the deal—the incredibly generous offer of public funding—we have given it. We hope we can find a way for…”

“We are trying to get to the bottom of that demand because people have different views and say different things. The Materials Processing Institute will give us its best guess, based on all the evidence, of what we need.”

“There are a couple of things that explain why we are doing a steel strategy. The steel sector has not been in a brilliant place over recent years. We have seen the production of steel fall. You saw the figures from UK Steel when they gave evidence. Only about a third of the steel we use now in this country is made in t…”

“Yes. That is why we need a plan, which we have not had before, that looks at what the demand is, what the possibilities are, what we do not make now. There is a lot of debate over floating offshore wind, for example. We do not have the plate mills to build the size of turbine that we might want. We need to look at all …”

“I do not know whether we will bring in exactly the same things at exactly the same time. Our priority is the conversations that we are having with the American Government. We want to make sure we are as successful as we can be in those conversations. The TRA has announced that it is doing a review, which is right, and …”

“I am sorry if this is repetitive, but there is a difference here. We are talking about the creation of steel production in the UK. There are lots of ways to produce steel in the UK. There are electric arc furnaces. We are looking at hydrogen production as well. Virgin steel is the steel that you get from blast furnaces…”

“At this stage, the TRA is doing its piece of work, and we are working with the Americans to see whether we can come to a conclusion.”

“It has not said. I am hoping that we will see it before the summer.”

“The EU is in a very different position. We do not yet know at all what is going to happen next week. We will respond and make sure we do what is right for our industries because that is our job. At the moment, we are both reviewing the measures that are already in place and prioritising the discussions with the America…”

“I am pleased it has responded quickly to what UK Steel has asked it to do.”

“It is not really a question of speed for me.”

“Minister Alexander is definitely looking at all these issues and making sure these things are as strong as they can be. Tomorrow, he is meeting UK Steel and the Community trade union to make sure we are completely aligned on what they need. As they said, there is the immediate problem of tariffs in America. The wider p…”

“The first thing to say is that we have some brilliant expertise in the country in terms of the workers who work in steel, which pays higher than local wages by some margin. We have the expertise that we need to draw on. Secondly, we have not taken a look back on steel for a while. The previous Government’s approach was…”

“It is about the 10-year trajectory and what we can do. We would like to think we are setting up a plan for the longer term, but it is about having something that gives us that line of sight going forward. In the main, these are private companies making choices about where they invest their money. It is our job to see w…”