MINISTERS have confirmed a “less than ideal” package of aid to keep steel production at Port Talbot in a deal which will nevertheless see 2,500 jobs go.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs that the government had reached agreement with steel monopoly Tata over a new investment package in the south Wales plant.

The taxpayer will put up £500 million to help convert production from the existing blast furnaces, one of which has already closed with the other closure impending, to a greener electric arc furnace.