The government is lining up bankers to conduct a review of options for Britain’s embattled steel industry amid calls for ministers to orchestrate mergers between some of the sector’s biggest players.

Sky News has learnt that Evercore, the independent investment bank which now employs George Osborne, the former chancellor, was expected to be appointed in the coming weeks to oversee a strategic review of the sector.

If its appointment is confirmed, Evercore will report its findings to Peter Kyle, the business secretary, and UK Government Investments (UKGI), the Whitehall agency which manages taxpayers’ interests in a range of companies, including the Post Office and Channel 4.

The talks with Evercore come as the steel industry contends with the impact of President Trump’s tariff war and the prospect of retaliatory measures from the European Union.

The move to recruit bankers for a key review of Britain’s struggling steel sector also comes during a period when the government has significant financial exposure to all of the country’s three largest steel producers.

Last year, ministers agreed to provide £500m in grant funding to Tata Steel, the Indian company, to install an electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.

The new facility is expected to be operational in 2027, but has been bitterly opposed by trade unions infuriated that the new funding was effectively used to drive through thousands of redundancies at the plant.

In April, the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, moved to seize control of British Steel after its Chinese owner, Jingye Group, threatened to close the UK’s last-remaining blast furnaces at its site in Scunthorpe.

The move sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing, with Jingye considering various legal options in an attempt to secure compensation for its shares in the company.

Last month, ministers disclosed that the cost of taking control of British Steel had risen to £235m, in addition to a £600m bill for preserving its future in 2019 and 2020 when the company fell into insolvency under its previous owner.

The government’s move prevented the immediate loss of more than 3,000 jobs, although there remain questions about the company’s viability as a standalone entity.

Some advisers believe that a combination of British Steel with other industry players, including Sheffield Forgemasters, which is also in government control, will be a necessary step to preserving steelmaking capacity in the UK.

People familiar with the plans said that a newspaper report this month suggesting that bankers were being recruited by the government to sell British Steel was “wrong”.

“The UK government doesn’t own British Steel; it’s hard to sell an asset you do own,” they said.

Nevertheless, it remains conceivable that the government will at some stage be able to determine the future ownership of the industry’s second-largest company, amid recent suggestions that Beijing could be willing to cede Jingye’s claim to the company in return for Sir Keir Starmer’s approval of a controversial new Chinese embassy in Central London.

“We continue to work with Jingye to find a pragmatic, realistic solution for the future of British Steel,” Chris McDonald, the industry minister, said in a statement to parliament this month.

“Our long-term aspiration for the company will require co-investment with the private sector to enable modernisation and decarbonisation, safeguard taxpayers’ money and retain steelmaking in Scunthorpe.”

Britain’s third-largest steelmaker, Speciality Steels UK (SSUK), is also effectively in government hands, having been placed into compulsory liquidation during the summer.

The business was part of Liberty Steel, which is owned by GFG, the metals empire of businessman Sanjeev Gupta.

In August, a judge declared SSUK as “hopelessly insolvent”, with a special manager now overseeing an auction of the business, which employs about 1,500 people.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said: “This government sees a bright and sustainable future for steelmaking in the UK, and we’ll set out our long-term vision for the sector in our upcoming Steel Strategy.”

Sources said that that strategy was likely to be published either next month or early in the new year.

Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.

Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.

The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.

Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.

The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.

Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.

Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.

The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.

“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.

Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.

The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.

The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.

Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.

Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.

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The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.

Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.

Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.

Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.

More than 300 people have died and dozens are missing following floods and landslides in Indonesia, which has also been hit by an earthquake.

Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province.

The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged thousands of houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said.

As rescue workers continued their efforts on Saturday, the head of the country’s disaster mitigation agency said the number of dead had risen to at least 303 people. Authorities fear the figure will increase.

Other Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have also been affected by torrential rain in the last week, with authorities working to rescue stranded citizens, restore power and communications and coordinate recovery efforts.

On Friday, the Thai government said 145 people had been killed by flooding across eight southern provinces, while two deaths have also been confirmed in Malaysia. Sri Lanka, in South Asia, has also seen 46 deaths following a cyclone, authorities said.

The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said.

Rescuers in Indonesia have been struggling to reach some areas cut off by damaged roads, and where communications lines have come down.

Relief aircraft have been delivering aid and supplies to the hard-hit district of Central Tapanuli in North Sumatra and other provinces in the region.

The agency said West Sumatra’s Agam district had also been affected.

Pictures of the rescue efforts show workers trudging through waist-deep mud and areas filled with tree trunks and debris, searching for any victims potentially trapped.

In Aceh province, flooded roads meant authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment to hilly hamlets which were hit by mud and rocks in the deluge.

Hundreds of police officers, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands and spades as heavy rain hindered their efforts.

Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Sumatra island near Aceh province on Thursday, the country’s geophysics agency said.

Torrential rain triggered flash flooding and landslides in Sumatra earlier in the week. Videos posted on social media showed water streaming down from rooftops as panicked residents scrambled to safety.

Heavy seasonal rain from about October to March often causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia – an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands including Sumatra – where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.

Last week, almost 1,000 people from three villages on Java were forced to flee to shelters after the eruption of Mount Semeru, the island’s highest volcano.