Plaid Cymru challenges Starmer over greater help to Scunthorpe than Port Talbot

Martin Shipton

Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts challenged Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions over the level of support given to Port Talbot steelworkers in comparison with the support given to save jobs at British Steel in Scunthorpe.

Ms Saville-Roberts, the MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, quoted the outcome of two Freedom of Information requests made to the UK Government.

Wales Office

The first, from the Wales Office, stated that it did not hold any information on funding support or support access in relation to jobs and training for Tata Steel workers in and around Port Talbot.

The second was a response from the UK Government’s Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government which stated that at this time there is no detail on: the number of workers who have accessed support from the Employment and Skills Flexible Fund, the number of grants awarded to them by the fund, and which, if any, training providers had accessed funding through the fund.

The second FoI response also stated that Community the trade union and Aberafan Support Centre received no money from the UK Government to support with training and reskilling of Tata Steel and/or Tata Steel supply chain workers.

Whitehead-Ross Education is an education and social service provision that operates six training centres in South Wales and supports more than 3,500 people every year. Its work includes support for unemployed individuals to secure and retain jobs through employability programmes like Jobs Growth Wales Plus, adult education and social service provision.

‘Double standards’

Ian Ross from Whitehead-Ross Education said: “When compared to the significant efforts and funding that has been provided to support steel workers in Scunthorpe in a very short period of time, this lack of information and clarity from the UK Government some significant time after issues first arose at Tata Steel is concerning and further highlights a significant set of double standards.”

Ms Saville-Roberts asked Sir Keir: “Last week, former steelworkers in Port Talbot watched in dismay as this government deemed their livelihoods worth less than those in Scunthorpe. FoIs reveal that the UK Government doesn’t know how its funding for reskilling workers in Wales is being used or even how many people are being retrained. We know concerns have been raised by the transition board.

“If this government can’t explain how it’s helping Port Talbot’s laid-off workers to build a future through reskilling, why shouldn’t those workers then come to the logical conclusion that Labour has abandoned them?

Important 

The Prime Minister responded: “She raised a really important issue in relation to Port Talbot. I visited a number of times and heard first hand from the workforce there. And she may or may not know that even in opposition before the election, I was talking to the owners to try to persuade them to delay their decisions because I knew an election was coming. That’s how important I thought it was.

“I would remind her that at the same time, the then Prime Minister [Rishi Sunsak ] refused to pick up a call to the First Minister [Mark Drakeford] to even discuss the issue. I took a different approach because I realised just how important it was. I would remind her, because she compares it with the decision we took last week, that the blast furnaces were turned off in January of last year, the coke ovens in March 2024, and therefore, that was before the election.

“That was the very thing I was trying to ensure didn’t happen for reasons that she and the workforce will understand, and I was talking to the workforce throughout that. What we’ve been able to do there since then is to negotiate an improved deal with Tata, and we did that within 10 weeks. Better terms for workers, we’re working hard to maximize opportunities from the £1,250,000,000 investment in an electric arc furnace and supporting those with job losses with £80 million of funding to learn new skills, supply chains, and protect communities.

“She talks about protecting working people, but she voted against the biggest devolution settlement since devolution. That includes more money for public services, including the NHS, and they [Plaid Cymru MSs] voted against it.”