JEREMY CORBYN is “quite prepared” to defy EU competition law to nationalise Britain’s ailing steel industry, the Morning Star can reveal.

 

The Labour leader said it was “kind of weird” that Britain was not prepared to challenge Brussels directives and their curbs on public ownership.

 

His comments came as TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady slammed the government’s  “snail’s pace” response to the steel crisis this autumn.

 

Interviewed by the Morning Star, the Labour leader said the continued viability of steel was essential for ensuring Britain remains an industrial player.

 

“If we’re going to have a manufacturing base, we’ve got to have a steel industry,” he said.

 

“I’m quite prepared to challenge EU competition law and EU directives on public ownership and on state funding. Other governments in Europe challenge it, it’s kind of weird that the British government doesn’t.

 

“So in the steel industry, Germany and particularly Italy have intervened to take parts of the steel industry into public ownership and I think we should be prepared to intervene where necessary. We have already lost a lot of steel capacity in Britain.”

 

On Monday MPs issued a damning report accusing the government of having failed to respond to warnings about the impending crisis in the industry, which saw the massive Redcar plant close and hundreds of job losses at two other works.

 

Bosses have blamed the “dumping” of cheap Chinese imports in Britain and blasted high energy tariffs imposed by the government.

 

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The actions needed were always obvious, but the government has moved at a snail’s pace — and still hasn’t done all it could. 

 

“Steel is an essential strategic industry for Britain. We will see many other industries down the supply chain suffer if it fails. The government must admit its mistakes and up its game, setting out an active industrial strategy.”

 

Mr Corbyn also savaged Tories for their failure to intervene to save Britain’s last deep coalmine at Kellingley in Yorkshire, which closed last Friday.

 

“There’s also the question of clean burn technology and carbon capture, which the government has resolutely refused to progress. 

 

“It seems to me the government is carrying on in the spirit of Margaret Thatcher in attacking an energy source. I also think we have to develop an energy policy in Britain that is focused on sustainability and renewables.”

 

But the Labour leader ruled out reopening pits “at the moment,” saying it was essential for clean coal technology to be in place first.

 

“You’ve got to look at the multiplicity of energy sources and developing clean burn technology,” he said.