Ed Miliband’s Net Zero policies blamed for leaving British Steel on brink of collapse

ENERGY Secretary Ed Miliband was humiliated yesterday after his Net Zero policies were blamed for leaving British Steel on the verge of collapse.

allowing the Government seize control of the firm’s Scunthorpe plant from its Chinese owners Jingye.

It came amid warnings the steel plant was just 48 hours away from being forced into a total shutdown.

In a day of political drama, was accused of leaving of extinction with his eco policies.

Shadow Business Secretary said our steel industry was being clobbered by costs twice as high as Germany’s owing to the barmy policies.

He raged: “No one is more responsible for this than the Energy Secretary and the Prime Minister who appointed him.”;

In extraordinary scenes, from entering the Scunthorpe site yesterday and British officials seized control at 4pm.

MPs then .

PM Sir said it would “give the Business Secretary the power and control necessary to do everything possible to protect the steel industry and steel jobs”;.

He added: “We are acting with urgency. We are acting in the interests of Scunthorpe and the nation. And we are acting to deliver security for working people.”;

Business Secretary admitted it is likely British Steel will be fully nationalised in the coming weeks.

to “starve”; the plant — cooling blast furnaces so much they could never be switched on again.

This would have meant the loss of 3,000 and left Britain as the only G7 country unable to produce its own steel.

Emergency stocks of coking coal were being rushed from to Scunthorpe last night to keep the furnaces roaring.

Unveiling the emergency legislation in a rare Saturday sitting, Mr Reynolds said the clock was “being run down”; on British steel and doing nothing “was not an option”;.

He told Parliament: “Steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, to our security and our identity as a primary global power.

Today’s legislation will help ensure we can retain that steel-making capacity here in the UK, both now and for years to come.”;

The plant is haemorrhaging around £400million a year — meaning the taxpayer could be on the hook for billions in bailout and running costs over the next few years.

Scunthorpe is the victim of a dishonesty that pretends it is better for the environment to ship coke halfway around the planet than from down the road — and an energy policy that has driven costs higher than any competing nation.

Andrew Griffith MP

Trading blows, Mr Griffith accused Labour of dithering over the steel rescue package.

In a fiery Commons showdown, he roared: “Will he change course today and cut energy costs now — not in ten years’ time when it is too late?”;

He savaged ministers for a new from opening in last year, leaving us hooked on foreign coal to feed our steel plants.

: “There is no steel strategy, there is no industrial strategy, there is no export strategy, and now we have this botched nationalisation.

“Scunthorpe is the victim of a dishonesty that pretends it is better for the environment to ship coke halfway around the planet than from down the road — and an energy policy that has driven costs higher than any competing nation.”;

Tory MP Graham Stuart also stuck the boot in over the dash for .

He fumed: “We have a government which is shipping coking coal from Japan when it was perfectly possible to have the greenest production of coking coal in the world in Cumbria with thousands of jobs.

“It’s a disgrace this government turns its back on jobs in Cumbria and in the North Sea because it puts ideology ahead of practicability and even ahead of the environment.”;

In an astonishing snub to British steel workers, Mr Miliband walked out of the debate after just over an hour.

His team refused to say why he refused to stay to hear all the contributions.

Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh, whose Gainsborough seat neighbours Scunthorpe in , called him out for leaving early.

However, Business Secretary Mr Reynolds slammed the Tories for doing a deal to hand Scunthorpe over to .

Issuing a rallying cry to pass the emergency legislation and back UK jobs, he said: “The question is whether we as a country want to continue to possess a steel industry.

“Do we want to make the construction steel and rail we need here in the UK, or do we want to be dependent on overseas imports?”;

He told MPs: “A transfer of ownership to the State remains on the table. It may well, at this stage, given the behaviour of the company, be the likely option.”;

MP Richard Tice called for full nationalisation — while wearing a trade union “Save British Steel”; badge.