TWO thousand workers in Scunthorpe are facing the axe following reports of a secret government plan to shut down Britain’s last remaining blast furnaces.
Families in the steel town have been dealt a hammer blow by news that Whitehall officials are considering extinguishing the furnaces for good to save money.
The shock proposal, revealed by The Sunday Times, would leave the UK as the only major economy in the G7 unable to make its own steel from scratch.
It is understood that government insiders are plotting to merge British Steel with parts of Sanjeev Gupta’s collapsed Speciality Steel UK (SSUK) empire.
Under this radical plan, the two historic blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would be turned off forever.
Instead of making new steel from iron ore, the UK would rely on a mothballed electric arc furnace in Rotherham to melt down old scrap metal.
This method would supposedly feed the factories in Scunthorpe that finish the steel, but experts fear the Rotherham site is not up to the job.
The plant in Rotherham needs millions of pounds in repairs and many industry insiders doubt it can produce the high-quality metal needed for the nation’s tanks, railways, and skyscrapers.
Union bosses have reacted with fury to the report and said the idea of closing the furnaces is a threat to national security.
Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary at the Community union, said the plan was “scarcely believable” and warned it would be a devastating blow to the country’s sovereignty.
The news is a bitter pill to swallow for staff who thought their jobs were safe after MPs rushed through emergency laws just months ago to stop the site’s Chinese owners from pulling the plug.
Parliament even sat on a Saturday in April to pass the rescue bill, which put the government in charge of day-to-day operations to keep the fires burning.
Taxpayers are currently paying £1million every single day to keep the business alive while ministers argue with the owners.
British Steel is currently owned by the Chinese giant Jingye, but the relationship has completely broken down.
The Chinese firm is reportedly demanding a massive £1billion payout to hand the keys over to the British government.
Ministers are now said to be looking for ways to slash that bill, including a controversial offer to approve China’s new “mega embassy” in London in exchange for a deal.
A government source told The Times that ministers are “keen to see UK steel sourced for UK projects”.
However, it has also emerged that a flagship British energy project is snubbing UK workers entirely.
The £8billion Net Zero Teesside project, which is backed by taxpayer cash, has decided to buy its steel from China instead of Scunthorpe.
Despite promises to support British industry, the project bosses are sending a £20million contract for 7,000 tonnes of steel overseas.
