Rennie urges UK Government to assess future of Dalzell steel mill

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie has written to the UK government’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds urging him to assess the future prospects of the Dalzell steel mill.

His letter comes amid discussions between the UK Government and Tata about the future of the Port Talbot steel plant.

Mr Rennie’s letter is as follows:

Dear Jonathan,

Congratulations on your new role.

I am writing to you because I have been following your talks with Tata at Port Talbot in recent days with interest.

I want to bring to your attention the situation at the Dalzell steel mill owned by Liberty Steel and formerly owned by Tata.

Just as we seek to roll out a massive expansion of renewables, this important steel plant is teetering on the edge, with recent reports indicating that Liberty Steel has suspended orders for plates from the Dalzell mill.

I have been warning about Liberty Steel for years but the Scottish Government have ignored those warnings. That is despite their role in the sale of the plant to Liberty Steel.

In April 2016, the Scottish Government facilitated a controversial "back-to-back" deal in which they purchased the Dalzell steel mills from previous owners Longs Steel, a subsidiary of Tata and immediately transferred them to Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty Steel.

Liberty Steel have not published accounts for the Dalzell plant for four years and have failed to pay back a £7m Scottish government loan that it received in 2016.

I believe it is time for the UK Government to step in before it is too late. The Scottish Government is only concerned about protecting its own reputation, having brokered the controversial deal.

I am requesting that you make contact and get to the bottom of the situation so that there can be an honest discussion about how to secure its future and the future of the workers.

I would be happy to share the documents uncovered by my team, if that would be helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Willie Rennie MSP

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson