Sir Keir Starmer has said the government will debate emergency legislation on Saturday to keep the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe open as “our economic and national security is on the line”.

The prime minister added that “the future of British Steel hangs in the balance” and that legislation will be passed tomorrow to allow the government to “take control of the plant and preserve all viable options” for it.

MPs are being summoned back from Easter recess to Westminster to debate draft legislation on the plans, and will sit from 11am on Saturday.

The government had been actively considering nationalising British Steel after Jingye, its Chinese owner in Scunthorpe, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the last blast furnaces in the UK running.

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Jingye also rejected a £500m state rescue package in a move which raised fresh doubts about the 3,500 people employed at the Lincolnshire plant – with it feared the site would be forced to close as early as next week.

The steel from the plant is used in the rail network and the construction and automotive industries. Without the plant, Britain would be reliant on imports at a time of trade wars and geopolitical instability.

In a short statement delivered from Downing Street this evening, Sir Keir said: “I will always act in the national interest to protect British jobs and British workers.

“This afternoon, the future of British Steel hangs in the balance.

“Jobs, investment, growth, our economic and national security are all on the line.”

‘A new era of global instability’

The prime minister added that he has been to the site in Scunthorpe and met the steelworkers there.

He said that he understands how “important steel is” to the “whole country” and continued: “It’s part of our national story, Part of the pride and heritage of this nation.

“And I’ll tell you this, it is essential for our future.

“(The government’s) plan for change means we need more steel, not less. So we will act with urgency… This situation and our response is unique.

“While it is true that we’re facing a new era of global instability, our concerns about this plant and negotiations to protect it have been running for years.”

Sir Keir said parliament will be recalled for a “Saturday sitting” and will “pass emergency legislation” in “one day” to give the business secretary the powers to do “everything possible to stop the closure of these blast furnaces”.

He added: “We will keep all options on the table. Our future is in our hands.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves posted on X after the statement that the government is “taking action to save British steel production and protect British jobs”.

“We are securing Britain’s future,” she added.

The Lords will also return to parliament for a rare Saturday sitting tomorrow.

Tory leader criticises Starmer

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said this evening that the Chinese owner of British steel has left the government with “no choice” but to act.

Jingye had confirmed plans to close the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe immediately despite months of talks and the offer of £500m of co-investment from the UK government, Mr Reynolds added in a statement.

It came as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the government has landed itself in a “steel crisis entirely of their own making”.

“As business secretary, I negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel to limit job losses and keep the plant running, including introducing an electric arc furnace in Teesside, similar to what we did with Tata at Port Talbot steelworks.

“However, the union-led Labour government have bungled the negotiations, insisting on a Scunthorpe-only deal that the company has deemed unviable. Keir Starmer should have seen this coming. But instead of addressing it earlier in the week when parliament was sitting, their incompetence has led to a last-minute recall of parliament.”

She added the government’s attempts to find a solution to the crisis are inevitably “going to cost taxpayers a lot of money”.

Meanwhile the Unite union welcomed Sir Keir’s announcement by saying it is “absolutely the right things to do to begin the process of nationalisation”.

The government has not confirmed plans to nationalise the company, but like the prime minister this evening, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said earlier this week that “all options” are on the table.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said this evening: “I am pleased that the government has listened to representations by Unite and other steel unions over the future of British Steel.

“Ministers could not have allowed a foundation industry to go under with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs and key skills… Discussions have been positive and whilst a longer-term plan needs to be developed, this gives workers the reprieve we have been asking for.”

‘When it was Wales, they mocked’

The government’s intervention over British Steel comes six months after the last blast furnace was closed at Port Talbot in Wales.

Welsh political party Plaid Cymru has questioned why the government didn’t take similiar action to save that steelworks.

The party’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts MP said: “Parliament is being recalled tomorrow to debate the nationalisation of Scunthorpe steelworks.

“But when global market forces devastated Welsh livelihoods in Port Talbot, Labour dismissed Plaid Cymru’s calls for nationalisation as ‘pipe dreams’.

“In a real emergency, governments step up to defend their strategic interests. Plaid Cymru recognised the importance of Welsh steelmaking. Labour chose to look the other way.

“When it was Wales, they mocked. Now it’s England, they act.

“Labour has taken Wales for granted for far too long – and the people of Wales won’t forget it.”

The defence secretary has said that 2025 is “the critical year” for Ukraine as he confirmed £450m in funding for a military support package.

The funding includes £350m from this year’s previously announced pot of £4.5bn in financial support, while the rest of the cash is being provided by Norway via the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine.

The money will fund repairs to and maintenance of UK-provided materials and equipment already given to Ukraine, as well as radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones.

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It was announced on Friday by Defence Secretary John Healey, who is in Brussels chairing a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group alongside his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.

The group is an alliance of about 50 countries – all 32 NATO member states, including the US, and about 20 other nations – that has been supporting Ukraine by sending military equipment there since April 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Mr Healey warned: “2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment.

“A moment for our defence industries to step up, and they are; a moment for our militaries to step up, and they are; a moment for our governments to step up, and they are.

“Together, we are sending a signal to Russia and we are saying to Ukraine that we stand with you in the fight and we will stand with you in the peace.”

At a news conference following the talks, Mr Healey told journalists that Ukraine’s allies have agreed to provide a “record boost” €21bn (£18.2bn) in total of military support for Kyiv.

The German defence minister confirmed that US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, attended virtually, while special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Moscow, which Mr Pistorius insisted was not a matter of “priorities”, but of “schedules”.

‘Coalition of the willing’ planning continues

The meeting comes one day after the UK defence secretary and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu led 30 defence ministers from the “coalition of the willing” in Brussels.

The group, which does not include the US, discussed operational plans on Thursday afternoon for a multinational peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

It looked at each nation’s capabilities and how they could be best used to support Ukraine’s long-term defence and security as part of what the Ministry of Defence called a “reassurance force”.

UK and French military chiefs discussed planning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military chiefs in Kyiv last weekend.

Peace negotiations are ongoing between the US and Russia, however, US officials appear to be growing increasingly impatient with the lack of progress after Donald Trump publicly suggested a month ago that Vladimir Putin wants to end the war.

Last Tuesday, the Kremlin described the latest US peace proposal as unacceptable in its current form because it does not solve the “root causes” of the conflict.

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Mr Putin wants to dismantle Ukraine as an independent, functioning state and has demanded Kyiv recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and other partly occupied areas and pull its forces out, as well as a pledge for Ukraine to never join NATO and to demilitarise.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday that Mr Trump is not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Moscow.

Despite the apparent impasse in talks, the coalition of the willing is continuing with its plans for when peace is agreed.