Tata steelworkers lobby MPs on thousands of job losses

Steelworkers from south Wales have travelled to Westminster to lobby MPs over plans to cut thousands of jobs.

Mark Davies, whose son also works in Port Talbot, said it was "a worry for people about where they'll get jobs" in future.

Meanwhile, the first minister said he was "baffled" Rishi Sunak did not take a call from him on Tata last week.

Union leaders met UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, ahead of the party's Commons debate on the future of the steel industry.

Senedd members also discussed Tata's plans, in Cardiff Bay.

Tata has said its current operations are financially unviable and it will focus on producing greener steel.

The company will build a £1.25bn electric arc furnace after the UK government contributed £500m towards its cost.

But it will end the production of steel from scratch, known as virgin steel, this year.

Mark Davies has worked in Port Talbot for 42 years, and wanted staff of all ages to be protected from redundancies.

"We want to see the next generations making a good living there," he said.

"My boy is only 28, he's in the cold mill. And it is a worry about where they'll get jobs going forward."

Mr Davies said he wanted to see Labour "come off the fence with a firm commitment" about reversing Tata Steel's plans.

The unions want at least one blast furnace to remain operational until the electric furnace is built.

As well as its financial concerns, Tata Steel has said it would be a safety risk to begin construction while hot metal was still being produced on site.

"I think it's important we go up and show a presence in parliament, for the government to see how serious we are," Gary Keogh said.

A veteran of the steelworks, Mr Keogh said he "expects some answers from the government about why they're prepared to throw our community and our industry away".

Those who travelled by train were members of Community, the union that represents most of the workers in the "heavy end" of Port Talbot's steelworks.

Another 300 jobs may go at Tata's Llanwern site, in Newport, in three years' time.

Jacqueline Thomas, who has worked there for nearly two decades, said the plant is like a "second family to me".

"At the moment the second family is being destroyed, we're under a tremendous amount of stress," she said, speaking outside the UK Parliament.

"It's predominantly a very young workforce, there's young lads I know that have had children and got married, and I look upon them sometimes as my own children.

"At the moment it's devastating."

The Unite union also lobbied MPs.

In the Commons debate, Labour business spokesperson Jonathan Reynolds urged UK ministers and Tata "to think again and change course" over the closure of the Port Talbot blast furnaces and subsequent job losses.

He said it would be a "calamitous mistake for the UK to become, under the Conservatives, the first major economy in the world without the ability to make our own primary steel".

Mr Reynolds said it was "profoundly wrong" for Rishi Sunak not to talk to First Minister Mark Drakeford when the news about the job losses broke last Friday, something Mr Drakeford told the Welsh Parliament earlier he had been "baffled" by.

Welsh Secretary David TC Davies told MPs he was prepared to speak to Mr Drakeford but the first minister was "too busy".

Mr Reynolds replied: "I have to say I think that's a pathetic response. I mean no discourtesy but I think that's pathetic, it is entirely reasonable for the first minister of Wales to see a conversation with the prime minister of the United Kingdom."

Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP who has the Port Talbot plant in his Aberavon constituency, said the steelworks was "the beating heart of our community", calling on Tata to reconsider the transition plan put forward by unions.

"I urge Tata Steel to take the bridge not the cliff edge," he said. "Their deal is a cliff edge which will send our workforce, our proud communities, over that cliff edge, that is not something we can accept."

Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts, called for the nationalisation of the steel industry.

"If we could save the banks in 2008, why can't we save steel now? Look at Germany whose government spent £2.6bn in state aid to steel producers to aid decarbonisation projects only last year."

"We're being let down once again by a Westminster government who intends on stripping Welsh assets while leaving the Senedd to bear the costs to communities and individual lives thrown on the scrap heap."

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Ms Saville Roberts questioned Labour's solutions "as they continue to scale back on their £28bn green investment pledge."

"Solutions from Westminster are a dead end" she said.

Business minister Nusrat Ghani, said it was "difficult" for steelworkers but the UK government was working "to ensure that steel making continues in the UK, providing it with unprecedented levels of investment".

Without the UK government support there would have been "a complete risk of Tata not continuing to make steel in the UK", she added.

Welsh Labour Economy Minister Vaughan Gething met Ms Ghani on Tuesday morning, before the Westminster debate.

Mark Drakeford told the Senedd he was "genuinely baffled" that Rishi Sunak could not find the time to take a call from him about Tata on Friday morning.

In First Minister's Questions, Mr Drakeford said former prime minister Theresa May had spoken to him when Ford announced the closure of its Bridgend engine plant in 2019.

Also during the question session, Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies disagreed with the plans to close both blast furnaces in Port Talbot, saying that keeping one open was "a feasible objective for the transition to arc furnaces".

His view differs from that taken by his Conservative colleagues in Westminster.

Earlier, a Plaid Cymru Senedd member said that her party would support any decision to take industrial action over closures at Tata.