Starmer nationalises British Steel and visits Ukraine on last full day as Labour leader – UK politics live

Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, says reports saying Shabana Mahmood is now set to be Andy Burnham’s chancellor have shown he would be “subservient to the City”.

Polanski posted this on social media this morning.

We don’t know what the cabinet will be yet, but the mood music is ominous.

A Labour Party subservient to the City of London and harking back to the Blair years would be catastrophic for this country.

People simply won’t stand for Rip Off Britain any more.

And he posted this on a tweet that also included a picture of today’s Financial Times splash.

“City relieved” = Burnham’s government won’t challenge the power of the bankers, or tax their wealth.

Who is choosing our politicians – the people or the banking sector?

Argentina’s players’ behaviour was “entirely inappropriate” when they waved a banner in support of their country’s claims to the Falkland Islands after their World Cup semi-final win against England, Peter Kyle has said. As the Press Association reports, Argentina, the defending champions, beat the Three Lions ۲-۱ in Wednesday’s match in Atlanta. PA says:

Argentina fans celebrated their victory jubilantly, with some near the pitch holding a banner which read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, which translates to “The Falkland Islands are Argentinian”.

The banner referring to the dispute over the British overseas territory made its way to the players, who held it up as they revelled in their win.

They could face the prospect of disciplinary action from governing body Fifa for violating rules banning political messaging on the pitch.

Asked about Argentina’s players brandishing the banner, Kyle, the business secretary, told BBC Breakfast: “My reaction is that it was entirely inappropriate. Politics needs to be separate from football. In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.

“That is now a matter for Fifa. I expect Fifa to do its investigation thoroughly.”

Peter Kyle, the business secretary, has said it is possible that Jingye, the Chinese firm that used to own British Steel, won’t receive any compensation for its nationalisation.

Asked about this on Times Radio, Kyle said:

The legislation that went through parliament, which I saw through parliament, has a mechanism by which an independent assessor will now judge if or if not any compensation is due.

Asked if it was possible that no compensation might be paid, Kyle replied:

There is that possibility. That is now the decision of the independent assessor that will make that decision.

Allan Bell, British Steel’s interim chief executive, has welcomed the news that his company has been nationalisted. In a statement, he said:

This is a momentous day for British Steel, and everyone connected with our business – our dedicated employees, our valued customers and suppliers, and the tens of thousands of people in our supply chains and local communities.

Much more than that, it is an historic day for Britain and UK manufacturing – one which safeguards our future and strengthens national security and infrastructure.

Reform UK is taking some credit for the British Steel nationalisation, because the party called for this earlier this year.

Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, issued this statement, asking for an assurance that the Chinese company Jingye won’t be paid compensation.

Reform UK called for the nationalisation of British Steel back in April last year to secure Britain’s critical virgin steelmaking capabilities for the next ۵۰ years. It’s good to see the government has finally listened.

We now need a bold strategy that backs British industry by ensuring the use of British steel in both public and private sector procurement, as well as scrapping net zero which is crippling our industry with sky-high energy costs. We must be proudly patriotic in buying British steel.

Compensation should be no more than £۱. This business comes with huge liabilities and will require billions of pounds of investment to rebuild the blast furnaces. Taxpayers should not be rewarding failed ownership.

Reform UK’s support for steel nationalisation is significant because it is more or less the only policy the party has that allows Kemi Badenoch to make her claim that Reform is leftwing. On almost every other measure, Reform is very rightwing.

Jakub Krupa has more coverage of Keir Starmer’s trip to Ukraine on his Europe live blog.

Good morning. Conventional wisdom has it that, once a PM announces they are going to stand down, all their power vanishes faster than water down a clear plughole. Broadly that’s correct. But in the last week or so Keir Starmer seems to have been acting with a decisiveness that eluded him for most of his time in office: finalising the defence investment plan; delivering the long-awaited apology to victims of forced adoption; over-ruling the security services to deliver the concession that got the Hillsborough law bill over the line; and finally securing a conditional pardon for Ruth Ellis.

This is not happening because being on the way out makes a PM more powerful. But it does help them focus, and forces them to give up on faffing around.

And we’ve seen another example today. On his last full day as Labour party leader, Starmer has nationalised British Steel.

In truth, this is something that has been in the pipeline for a while. But the steel industry (nationalisation) bill only got royal assent yesterday, and the government has used it to nationalise a company which was previously owned by the Chinese company Jingye and which was already under public control.

Here is the government’s news release. Here is our story by Jasper Jolly.

In a statement, Starmer said:

British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain’s industrial strength.

Today’s decision secures the future of steelmaking in the UK, protects skilled jobs and safeguards a vital national capability.

This government will always act in the national interest to support British industry, strengthen our economy and ensure the industries we rely on can thrive long into the future.

But Starmer, who will be replaced by Andy Burnham as Labour leader tomorrow, and by Burnham as PM on Monday, won’t be at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe to mark this. Instead he is on a visit to Ukraine.

As Starmer ties up his legacy, there is increasing focus on what Burnham will do when he takes office next week. As Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot and Kiran Stacey report, it is now thought that Burnham will appoint Shabana Mahmood, the current home secretary, as his chancellor.

Until recently Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, was favourite to be Burnham’s chancellor.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Keir Starmer is in Kyiv for a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.

Morning: Peter Kyle, the business secretary, is expected to visit British Steel.

۱۰am: Jeremy Pocklington, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about the defence investment plan.

۱۱.۳۰am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Aberdeen.

And it is the final day the Commons is sitting before the summer recess. That means lots of written statements. There are ۲۲ on the order paper, including ones covering local government reorganisation, the fair pay deal for care workers, the future of the undercover policing inquiry and laws relating to weddings.

I am afraid we are not able to open comments today for staffing reasons.

But if you want to contact me, do use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.

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