Steel campaigners drop petition in Downing Street urging Tories to help industry

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Workers want the government to act on energy prices and financially support the sector as it moves towards more environmentally friendly methods of production environment to help achieve net zero

Activists from the Community, Unite and GMB unions, led by Community General Secretary Roy Rickhuss, hand in a petition calling for more action to help the steel industry

Metallurgists have delivered a petition to Downing Street calling on ministers to support the beleaguered industry.

Crippled energy costs and cheap foreign imports threaten the sector's future, while ministers have also been criticized for buying steel from overseas.

Employees from across the UK showed up at No 10, determined to persuade the government to throw a lifeline to the sector.

Adrian Dalgleish, 46, who has worked at the Celsa plant in Cardiff for 16 years, said: 'If the government does not intervene in the sourcing and regulation of steel from the outside the country and on energy prices, there will be no future for the steel industry in the UK.

"Steel goes into the wind turbines that everyone sees as they cross the country, offshore wind turbines and tidal lagoon projects.

"The best and cheapest way to get them would be through a stable British steel industry.

Workers fear for their livelihoods (

Picture:

AFP via Getty Images)

“I would like the government to impose more regulations on the import of steel, extend the supply agreement so that most manufacturing companies source steel from UK industry and also extend the ceiling - and if possible, reduce it - on energy prices for businesses."< /p>

Angela Carrigan, 48, who has worked for Liberty Steels Dalzell sheet metal works in Motherwell for 16 years, said: "I am very concerned. We want to make sure steel is there for the future "We are looking for some support from the government, to wake up and see that the future is steel.

"From wind turbines to reusable water bottles, everything is mostly steel.

"We are looking at the support other countries are getting from their governments and all we want is a level playing field.

"It's really unfair."