Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the Conservative leader is wrong to say she had negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel for electric arc furnaces at Teesside and Scunthorpe. Ms Badenoch posted on X on Friday saying as business secretary in the last Conservative government she had negotiated the proposal, but it was "bungled" by Labour. After intervening, Ms Badenoch says: "Labour cannot negotiate. We were negotiating a modernisation deal that would have had limited job losses, just like we had in Port Talbot”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00But I have to address, and I do this as a matter of genuine regret, the statement I saw made by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday.
00:08Because she claimed that, while she did my job, she negotiated a modernisation plan with British Steel to build an electric arc furnace at Teesside, followed by one at Scunthorpe.
00:19Mr Speaker, I wish to make, unequivocally clear to the House, the new Government inherited no such deal.
00:24We could not renege on that deal because it did not exist.
00:33On day one, I was told there had been a lack of progress on this matter to date.
00:39So if such a deal was negotiated, somehow in secret, I would ask the Leader of the Opposition to say how much money she agreed to give Xigné for this deal,
00:52what were the conditions placed upon it?
00:55Speaker, this is an excellent chance to clarify this.
00:57Because if the Leader of the Opposition agreed a deal with Xigné to cause massive job losses in Scunthorpe,
01:04transfer the jobs to a completely different place, at higher cost than the request the company made to us,
01:10I think she should be able to tell us.
01:12And I'm more than happy for her to give a chance.
01:17Mr Speaker, Labour cannot negotiate.
01:20We were negotiating a modernisation deal that would have had limited job losses, just like we had in Port Talbot.
01:33They inherited a functioning commercial deal in Port Talbot.
01:37The same was going to happen with British Steel had we not had a snap election.
01:42What he is doing now, what he is doing now, Mr Speaker, is the union-pushed deal.
01:49They brought that deal to me, Mr Speaker.
01:51I said no, he said yes.