Labour MP Stephen Kinnock voices deep concerns over the UK Government's investment into electric arc furnaces (EAF) at Tata Steel at Port Talbot. He says that the EAF technology will result in more job losses than necessary, and will not be able to produce the quality and grade of steel needed to meet the demands of Tata’s customer base. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 Well it's very disappointing. There was an opportunity here to look right across the
00:04 board of all the ways that we can move to cleaner, greener steel. Hydrogen, direct reduced
00:09 iron, carbon capture and storage. But they've decided it seems to put all their eggs into
00:14 the electric arc furnace basket. The problem with electric arc furnaces is they can't make
00:19 all of the forms and qualities of steel that we need, both to protect the current order
00:24 of the book and also to embrace the opportunities of the future. So it's a big missed opportunity
00:30 and it's disappointing as well that the government and Tata Steel have completely failed to include
00:35 the trade unions in this consultation because the trade unions I think could have given
00:40 them some very useful input indeed. There isn't a single family in this town that isn't
00:46 directly connected to the steelworks. It is the beating heart of our community and of
00:51 our economy. And these job losses will be devastating. In my view, one job loss is one
00:56 job lost too many. There was an opportunity to have a plan in place that could have sustained
01:02 the jobs and also built for the future, for the huge opportunities that are coming down
01:07 the track with the green industrial revolution. That's why Labour's £3 billion clean steel
01:13 fund is what we need. It's the level of ambition, the bold programme that we need to take our
01:19 steel industry forward into the future to protect those jobs, to ensure our national
01:23 security and to ensure that we make our contribution to fighting climate change.
01:27 climate change.