I have written to the speaker this morning requesting an urgent question on the job losses announced at Tata Steel.
I hope the speaker will grant my request to ask Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills for a statement.
The Rt. Hon John Bercow MP
Speaker
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA 18 January 2016
URGENT QUESTION – APPLICATION
Dear Mr Speaker,
I am writing to apply to put the following Urgent Question (“UQ”) in the House today to the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State (“SoS”) for Business, Innovation and Skills (“BIS”):
To ask the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills to make a statement on the Government’s response to the job losses announced by Tata Steel UK this morning and the future of the British Steel Industry in light of those job cuts.
I set out the grounds for my application below.
Background
Tata Steel this morning announced 1,050 job losses across its UK operations. The majority of those, approximately 750, will be in Port Talbot where 4,000 men and women are employed at the steelworks, each with dependent families and few alternative routes to employment in the surrounding area.
This comes on top of job losses at Tata’s Newport plant last year, along with job losses across the UK announced by a number of steel plant operators in September 2015.
The crucial strategic importance of the steel industry to the UK economy and to our country’s security added to the imminent threat to the livelihoods of my constituents are the reason an urgent question should be granted.
The steel industry shapes the landscape, economy and culture of my constituency but cheap Chinese imports are jeopardising that historic link. Unlike other EU countries, including Italy and Spain, the UK has not taken the action it could to combat dumping.
The crisis in the steel industry has been rumbling on for a number of months, with the government warned at every turn of the consequences of inaction. Now almost a quarter of the jobs at the largest steelworks in the United Kingdom are being cut, the government must offer a response.
Regards,
Stephen Kinnock
Member of Parliament for Aberavon