Following the announcement of possible job losses at Stocksbridge’s Liberty Steel I met with the Secretary of State for Business, Andrea Leadsom, and the Business Minister, Nadhim Zahawi.
The Secretary of State agreed to my request for a meeting between the specialist steel team in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and representatives from Liberty. The aim of the meeting would be to explore the ways the Government could help.
Earlier in the day I met with the Director General of UK Steel who gave me a detailed briefing about the steel industry and its critical importance to the UK.
I was particularly interested in finding out about the things I could do, as Member of Parliament to help ensure UK Steel had a viable future in the UK and most importantly in our constituency.
Steel manufacture is an important part of Penistone and Stocksbridge’s heritage and I believe it has an equally important role in our future. Jobs in the steel industry tend to be high-skilled and well-paid and these are exactly the kind of jobs that our community needs.
That’s why I will be working with the Government, steel workers and the steel industry to secure the future of steel in Stocksbridge.
