Scunthorpe Crisis Is Not A One-Off

Get ready for state intervention to save UK strategic capacity

There were dramatic scenes on Saturday when steelworkers at Scunthorpe, home to Britain’s last two functional blast furnaces, locked Chinese managers out of the plant — after claiming they were about to sabotage production.

Parliament was recalled to rush through legislation giving the government control over the plant, after its Chinese owners, Jingye, were accused of attempting to sell a vital shipment of coking coal to another Chinese company, in order to prevent its use to keep the plant alive.

Right now, the situation is on a knife edge. The technicalities of keeping Britain’s virgin steelmaking capability alive are complex. Government officials are in the plant and apparently contemplating giving a military escort to the relevant supplies.

But what the Scunthorpe crisis shows is that — from defence, to industrial strategy — we are just not in Kansas anymore. I understand why the British government has to use highly circumspect legal language, to avoid leaving itself open to a huge bill for acquiring a facility that is worth nothing financially, but Scunthorpe is headed for nationalisation. The sooner this is stated openly the better.