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LABOUR has been accused of double standards after failing to save the steelworks at Port Talbot in south Wales despite doing so in Scunthorpe.
Tata Steel was allowed to shut its blast furnaces at Port Talbot in September with the loss of 2,800 jobs.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government passed emergency legislation in a single day on Saturday to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant in Lincolnshire.
Speaking in the Commons on Saturday, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts said: “Today’s legislation to safeguard the UK’s last bastion of primary steelmaking capacity is of course to be supported.
“But what my party cannot support is this government’s approach to steel in the UK which deems steel in Scunthorpe is worth saving but not steel in Wales.
“Today is a bitter day for the people of Port Talbot, where the blast furnaces have been extinguished, because Labour let that happen.
“These job losses will take an estimated £200 million from the local economy in lost wages.
“Plaid Cymru has consistently called for nationalisation, but the Labour First Minister of Wales [Eluned Morgan] rejected our calls. She described nationalisation as ‘pipe dreams.’
“Labour in Wales were quick to mock our proposal, which we made 21 times on record in Cardiff and here. Now, it’s UK Labour policy for Scunthorpe.
“Under this government, Scunthorpe gets security while Port Talbot gets a pittance.”
Plaid tabled an amendment to include Wales under the terms of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill, but there was not enough time for it to be debated.
Welsh Communist Party secretary Dominic MacAskill said anger in Wales is “well justified” given that the same Labour government has so recently allowed the blast furnaces in Port Talbot to be extinguished.
He said: “Welsh Labour was scornful of suggestions to nationalise Tata Steel in the national interest and Starmer’s government set its face against this option in Wales.
“Nationalisation is the correct approach to ensure Britain has the capacity to make virgin steel in the national interest.”
Labour Industry Minister Sarah Jones said the different approach was due to Tata’s willingness to invest in Port Talbot and the changed global circumstances making it necessary to protect Britain’s primary steelmaking capacity.
