Tata Steel in Port Talbot, as the last blast furnace at one of the biggest steelworks in the world shuts down, September 30, 2024
QUESTIONS to First Minister Eluned Morgan today centred on the impact on funding for Port Talbot’s steelmaking after the Westminster government saved British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant.
Plaid Cymru’s Luke Fletcher said that there was serious concern in Port Talbot about access to the Westminster government’s £2.5 billion steel fund.
“In conversations with unions, they were very clear there’s still a bright future possible for the Port Talbot site. So, what conversations have you had with your UK government colleagues around ensuring that Port Talbot gets more than its fair share of that £2.5bn fund, now that those blast furnaces have been closed?” he asked.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Economy has already written to the Secretary of State asking for a significant share of that £2.5bn fund for the steel sector,” Ms Morgan responded.
“I have reiterated that in a letter that I have sent today to the Secretary of State, with a host of other measures that I have been asking for to give the protection at a time when steel is under a huge amount of pressure.”
Welsh Conservative Senedd member Samuel Kurtz asked the FM to release that letter.
LUKE FLETCHER pours scorn on Labour’s betrayal of the Welsh steel industry, where the option of nationalisation was sneered at and dismissed – unlike at Scunthorpe where the government stepped in
