Tarik Habte
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

An emergency bill to save British Steel's Scunthorpe plant has become law.

It took around six and a half hours in total for Parliament to pass the legislation and the King to approve it.

The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act will allow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds to direct the board and staff of British Steel.

Reynolds said the government had "no choice but to act" to save the Scunthorpe plant, after Chinese company Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, said it had been suffering financial losses of around £700,000 a day.

Shortly after the hearing in the House of Commons this morning, Starmer met with steelworkers in Lincolnshire, telling them they are the "backbone of British Steel".

BBC's Oli Constable, who was in Scunthorpe today, said the atmosphere was celebratory after the law was passed.

As for what's next, the government will begin the process of taking control of British Steel in a bid to keep the furnaces burning in Scunthorpe.

We're now closing our live coverage, but you can keep up to date with the latest developments in our news story.

Thanks for joining us.

Image source, Reuters

• MPs arrived at the House of Commons, some with their children, as Parliament met for a rare Saturday sitting
• A debate on the the bill to save British Steel saw "raw, angry politics", BBC's Chris Mason says, as the MPs from across all UK parties stated their case
• The bill passed through the Commons and made its way to the House of Lords, as Starmer headed up to Lincolnshire to speak with steelworkers directly impacted by the decision
• A march in Scunthorpe saw crowds of steelworkers, their families, union members and locals make voice their demands to keep the plant open
• The emergency bill became law, after it was approved by both Parliament and the King, as UK officials stood ready to take control of the Scunthorpe steelworks
• Steelworkers headed home after a day of work as their futures no longer hung in the balance, while Starmer said his government "stepped in to save British Steel" and that "all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry"

Image source, Getty Images

We're hearing from Keir Starmer now, who earlier attended the hearing in the Commons before meeting with steelworkers near Scunthorpe.

In a post on X, he says that "today, my Government has stepped in to save British Steel. We are acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers, and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry".

The prime minister adds that his government is "turning the page on a decade of decline, where our manufacturing heartlands were hollowed out by the previous government."

Image source, Getty Images

Throughout the day we've been hearing from people in Scunthorpe directly affected by the outcome of today's debate. Here's a snapshot of what steelworkers told the BBC:

Nick Adams, 28, feared that if the works closed, he'd have to commute out of town. “It won’t just be felt by those directly employed by British Steel,” he says. “It’ll impact the butchers, the cafes, even the football club.”

British Steel worker Rob Barroclough, 37, said he was "hoping for the best but planning for the worst".

Kieran, 30, said: "I’ve worked at the steelworks since I left school. I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else."

During a march in support of saving the plant, the crowd chanted “we want our steel back” and “we want British Steel”.

In a village hall near the steelworks, one worker told Starmer before the law was passed: "We're not there yet, we've still got a lot of hard work to do."

John Foster, chief policy and campaigns officer at the Confederation for Business Industry says the government's decision to take control of British Steel is " a necessary outcome needed to preserve the UK’s primary steel production capability".

He adds that, given the government's aim for economic growth, "it is vital the UK doesn’t lose vital steelmaking capabilities".

"In a period of global instability it is increasingly important that the UK has the capability to provide the steel we need", he says, adding its is necessary within the "volatile backdrop provided by tariffs".

Oli Constable
Reporting from Scunthorpe

Image source, BBC/Oli Constable

As workers leave the gates following their shifts, they fist pump the air and beep their horns.

It’s a celebration.

While they've been working to keep the blast furnaces running, Westminster has spent the day deciding their futures.

It’s moved very quickly but the reality for the town has been months and months of worry surrounding the jobs of their loved ones, friends and neighbours.

There’s a steady stream of cars coming and going during the shift change. Many just want to go home after a hard days' work, and years of stress.

BBC Newsbeat

The government's emergency bill on British Steel's Scunthorpe plant has been happily received by steelworkers in Lincolnshire.

In Port Talbot, south Wales, blast furnaces owned by Tata Steel were shut down. Locals have been questioning why they didn't receive a similar plan of intervention.

Owen, who was an apprentice at Tata Steel, described today's government intervention for British Steel as, "a kick in the teeth for Port Talbot".

Owen says he's pleased the government stepped in to protect steelmaking in the UK, but noted the lack of action for steelworkers in Wales: "Where was that when we were going through it?"

Richard, who owns a gifts and interiors business in Port Talbot says he and other retailers have been impacted by the Tata Steel closure. "It’s challenging on the high street, we are trying our best to keep going".

He said he'd like the government to "take control of all the remaining steelworks and provide a better future for Port Talbot steelworks".

A joint managing director for British nuclear project Sizewell C says "this is a major opportunity to support UK steelmakers".

Julia Pyke welcomes the fact that "British Steel is recognised as a strategic national asset".

She adds that Sizewell C, which proposes to build a new nuclear power station on the East Suffolk coast, will be "one of the biggest buyers of British steel in the coming years".

"We expect to use more than 350,000 tonnes of steel over the course of construction. Overall, we anticipate a steel pipeline of over £650 million throughout the next decade," she adds.

An emergency bill to save British Steel's Scunthorpe plant from closing has been approved by Parliament and the King, meaning it has become law.

What exactly will the new law do?

• This bill allows government, and most notably Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, to direct the board and staff of British Steel
• The government will be able to order raw materials to keep the site's two running blast furnaces in operation, saving it from closure
• Though the government does not own the plant - it is still owned by British Steel, which was bought by Chinese company Jingye in 2020

Royal assent has been granted to the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said.

This means the legislation has cleared the Houses of Parliament and become law.

Joe Pike
Political & Investigations Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The bill has now cleared the Lords without amendments and goes straight to the King for Royal Assent.

In around six and a half hours, the government managed to get this five page bit of legislation through.

The bill will become law imminently. We understand government officials are already in Scunthorpe awaiting Royal Assent, which will allow them to start taking charge of part of that business.

This bill allows the business secretary to direct the board and staff of British Steel, who can get to work pretty soon.

There's an urgency to this because of the possibility those furnaces go out. Very soon, the UK government will have the power to make sure that doesn't happen.

Jennifer McKiernan
Political reporter

Image source, PA Media

The bill has now been approved by Parliament, but is awaiting Royal Assent - what does that mean?

Royal Assent is the final stage a bill must pass to become an Act of Parliament, which means it becomes law.

Although strictly speaking the monarch could decide to refuse permission, the granting of Royal Assent is a formality in the modern UK Parliament.

The royal approval is then announced by the Speakers in both Houses of Parliament.

Practically, what this means in this case is that the UK government will be able to take control of the steelworks in Scunthorpe.

Joe Pike
Political & Investigations Correspondent

The BBC understands UK government officials are at the Scunthorpe site ready to take control once Royal Assent is given.

The emergency legislation giving the government the power to take control of the British Steel site at Scunthorpe is on course to become law after it was approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

In the Lords, Lord Hunt of Wirral queries why the government would resist a sunset clause for short-term measures to deal with an emergency.

The Lords Constitution Select Committee had stressed that emergency legislation should include sunset clauses "wherever possible", he says.

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the government's business minister in the Lords, replies: "A fixed sunset clause wouldn't be practical and would cause an unacceptable amount of uncertainty if a solution to the issue at hand became protracted".

She adds laws could still be revoked by Parliament at any time and opponents agree to withdraw the amendments.

With that, the bill is officially approved by Parliament and is awaiting Royal Assent.

Nationalisation looks increasingly like inevitable next steppublished at 17:17 British Summer Time 12 April

17:17 BST 12 April

Chris Mason
Political editor

Toddlers in tow in Parliament today told the human story of this last minute government intervention. Whether it really needed to be so last minute seems a reasonable question.

The government argues its dealings with Jingye, British Steel’s Chinese owners became increasingly fraught and bitter, and without immediate intervention the plant would have been doomed within weeks.

Blast furnaces starved of raw material don’t just go out but can, as a result, be rendered obsolete too; ministers argue.

And so this stop gap; a weekend legislative sprint, a bill going from First Reading to Royal Assent in hours, not months.

Nationalisation looks like the increasingly inevitable next step. Sensible, pragmatic in the circumstances argue ministers.

Another case study, reckon some who know the Prime Minister’s mind, of an instinct for a sliver of economic nativism; muscular government intervention in an era dominated by President Trump’s guiding principle of “America First.”

There are big questions and big numbers attached to this path – and so potentially big budgetary implications too down the track.

This will be far from the last day this year the British steel industry makes news.

Jennifer McKiernan
Political reporter

As we reported a little earlier, the House of Lords were delayed following amendments tabled by Tory and Lib Dem peers around a "sunset clause" in the bill - but what does this mean?

A sunset clause is an agreement that a contract will expire, it is put into a law to specify an expiration date or time limit.

In this case, peers want to see a time limit added to the Bill, so that the sweeping powers that will be granted to the Business Secretary cannot continue indefinitely

The Lords have now reconvened, with Conservative Lord Hunt of Wirral speaking in support of his amendment to introduce such a sunset clause to the bill.

Peers in the House of Lords have returned, continuing their debate on the bill to save British Steel's Scunthorpe plant.

You can follow along by clicking Watch live at the top of this page. We'll continue to bring you the key developments as we get them.

Jennifer McKiernan
Political reporter

The House of Lords will now return at 16:45 BST, as Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers have tabled amendments , externalaround a "sunset clause" in the emergency Bill.

In short, they want the extraordinary powers given to the Business Secretary to be reconsidered by Parliament after six months, and on an annual basis, and removed if MPs agree the Act is no longer needed.

The BBC's Newscast podcast takes a look at the future of British Steel, as MPs voted to take control over a Scunthorpe plant.

They met in Parliament on a Saturday for the first time since 1982.

Chris Mason was there too, and he joins Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O'Connell to talk through the details, as well as what it says about how the UK is responding to international events.

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also joins the podcast.

If you're in the UK, listen to new episodes, released daily on BBC Sounds.