Tata Steel and the government must urgently set out plans for the Indian company’s UK operations, according to Port Talbot’s MP, Stephen Kinnock.
Kinnock, the Labour MP for Aberavon, which includes Tata’s main steel works at Port Talbot, said reports that the firm intends to put the sale of its British assets on hold would leave employees in limbo.
Sajid Javid, the business secretary, is flying to Mumbai to meet Tata executives to discuss plans for the UK business, which employs 11,000 people. Tata Steel’s board meets on Friday and could announce a pause in the sale process, the BBC reported.
Tata was already in talks with the UK government about keeping the business in return for a loan of up to £1bn and a restructuring of its pension scheme.
Kinnock called on Javid to make a statement to parliament after he returns from India.
Kinnock said: “Steel workers and their families have been put through hell over the last weeks and months, and they will be forgiven for greeting these reports with a degree of scepticism, and perhaps even an element of anger. It is now absolutely critical that Tata Steel and the UK government come forward with a specific timetable.”
He said disruption caused by the vote to leave the EU was not an excuse for further uncertainty and called on Tata Steel and Javid to say whether the Port Talbot strip products business was still for sale and to clarify the position of the pension scheme.
“Sajid Javid must now undertake to make a statement to parliament upon his return from Mumbai on Monday. This statement must provide a clear timetable, and clear answers,” Kinnock said.
Tata Steel announced in late March that it intended to sell its UK business, blaming cheap Chinese imports, a slump in the steel price and high energy costs for its decision. At the time the business was said to be losing £1m a day.
Cost cutting, a rise in the steel price and the fall in sterling after the referendum have helped make the business more viable. Tata Steel is considering selling its speciality steels and pipeline tube businesses, which employ 2,500 people in Rotherham, Hartlepool and Stocksbridge near Sheffield, if it decides to stay in the UK.
After a slow initial response, the government came up with measures designed to encourage potential buyers, including taking a stake in the business. Anna Soubry, the business minister, said on Wednesday that full nationalisation remained an option to save Tata’s UK operations, which helps support tens of thousands of jobs.
Both Tata Steel and the business department declined to comment.
