Reacting to today’s news of the mothballing of the SSI plant on Teesside, Labour MP for Stockton North, Alex Cunningham said:
“Today’s announcement is a bitter blow to the whole of Teesside and beyond with thousands of jobs affected over and above the loss of the 1700 at the Redcar works. The time for government action is long overdue and instead of the Chancellor trying to persuade the Chinese to bid for lucrative contracts to build our railways, he should be doing something to stop them dumping their cheap steel into the British and European markets. At the same time, the Prime Minister must intervene to bring forward the protection from high energy and related costs being suffered by our energy intensive industries. Only then will we have a chance to rebuild our once proud steel industry.”
