Kerry McCarthy MP, Shadow Climate Change Minister has visited Tata Steel’s Port Talbot works to understand more about the company’s UK operations and supply chains, the progress being made to reduce emissions, and to commit her support for the decarbonisation of the UK steel industry.
She said: “We know that steel is one of the hard to decarbonise sectors, but it’s part of our mission to reach net zero.
“I wanted to come and talk to Tata Steel about how we can protect the future of the industry, what sort of investment it needs and what support it needs from government so that we can have clean steel in the future and that it can remain a central part of our economy.
“One thing that strikes you is how much steel is part of its local communities, and my visit has reiterated just how important this part of our industrial economy is.
Kerry went on to talk about the Labour party’s commitment to steel. She said: “We have a green prosperity plan that would bring £28billion of investment, and as part of that we’d have a green steel fund.
“One of the things I’m very interested about is the circularity of the process, how we can get more scrap recycled, and how emissions can be cut across the board.
“I’ve heard lots about what Tata Steel is doing to reduce its emissions and improve that circularity, but where government can step in to help I think there’s a very strong case for us doing so."
“It’s an essential part of our industrial sector: we don’t want to rely on imported steel; we don’t want jobs to go abroad; if anything we want to strengthen the steel sector in this country.
And it’s not just about jobs in Tata Steel, it’s about jobs in the wider economy, it’s about the whole community.
Kerry summed up: “We were at the forefront of the industrial revolution, we now need to make it a green revolution but without abandoning the industries that made us what we are.”
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