CHINESE firms could be locked out of critical industries after almost killing off British Steel.
The Business Secretary said there is now a “high trust bar” for Beijing firms to buy into sensitive sectors.
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Jonathan Reynolds effectively ruled out another Chinese firm taking over the business after owner Jingye came within days of closing Scunthorpe’s furnaces.
He told Sky News yesterday: “We have to be clear about the sectors where we can co-operate, and ones we can’t. I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.”
Emergency laws passed on Saturday give him power to overrule Jingye’s decision to end production at Scunthorpe by ordering British Steel staff to keep it going.
While the Government would prefer another private firm take over British Steel, the “likely” outcome is full-scale nationalisation.
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Reform’s Nigel Farage yesterday said he believed that Jingye’s purchase of British Steel in 2020 was a “strategic decision by the Chinese Communist Party”.
He told the BBC: “I am certain they bought British Steel to close British Steel.”
Mr Reynolds said it had links to the CPP but insisted he was “not accusing the Chinese state of being directly behind this.”
While British Steel is losing £700,000 a day, the minister said letting it collapse would have cost £1billion.
But he rejected calls to ease Net Zero targets after Jingye blamed financial pressures on electricity costs.
More than a dozen firms are understood to have offered to help British Steel secure raw materials for its Scunthorpe works since the Government stepped in.