Bill Esterson – 2021 Comments on Trade Safeguards on Steel

The comments made by Bill Esterson, the Shadow International Trade Minister, on 11 June 2021.

This is a deeply disappointing – if sadly unsurprising – recommendation from an organisation that is fundamentally flawed in its composition and its remit and has simply not given sufficient weight to the implications of this verdict for steelworkers, their families, and the communities that rely on that industry.

The Government will say their only option is now to accept this recommendation, but that is simply not true. They must instead accept Labour’s offer to work together in the national interest and come forward with emergency legislation, which we will support, to amend the regulations and allow Britain’s steel safeguards to be maintained in full.

That is the only responsible and acceptable course of action to protect the British steel industry and the tens of thousands of jobs it supports.