Minister's hope for Rotherham steelworks' future

The Tory minister visited the Aldwarke site on Monday and said people should be confident about the firm’s future.

Last week Tata bosses revealed at a meeting held at their Mumbai HQ they were going to sell off its UK assets – putting thousands of jobs at risk at its Rotherham sites.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the news was unexpected, but Ms Soubry said during her visit the Government had been in talks with Tata for weeks.

She added: “Nobody really knew what was going to come out of that meeting in Mumbai.”

The minister said Rotherham’s position compared to Tata in Port Talbot, which she claimed was losing £1 million a day, was very different.

“It (Rotherham) does not lose that amount of money, it has a real future, and makes specialist steel which is exported around the world,” she said.

“Every aeroplane that is made has a piece of steel in it that comes from this site, I don’t think people realise that.

“The clue’s in the name - specialist steels, it has a future.”

The business minister said she estimated Tata could find a buyer within four to six weeks.

When asked what would happen if that was not achieved she said she did not see that ever happening.

She continued: “We know the interest is there, and quite rightly should be, this is a viable business with a genuine future, extremely skilled workforce, producing specialist steels.”