Minister Anna Soubry defends government over SSI steel response

Anna Soubry said the government had been working behind the scenes to help the Redcar steel plant

A minister has defended the government over its response to the mothballing of the SSI steel plant on Teesside.

Anna Soubry said she had been working behind the scenes to help and had come to Redcar at the "first opportunity".

Redcar Labour MP Anna Turley said the "silence from government" had been "shocking".

"With all the effort and the noise that's been made the last few days we've just got tumbleweed from them," she said.

"We want to see them understanding just how serious this situation is."

Several members of Linda Robinson's family have been employed at the steelworks

SSI said on Monday that iron and steelmaking at the site would be halted for up to five years, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.

It said poor trading conditions and low prices would need to improve before the plant could reopen.

Ms Soubry, the minister for small business, said she would be meeting SSI, unions and MPs but had been doing "an awful lot of work" in private.

She and her team had made sure the workforce was paid on Friday and had stayed at work late into the evening to deal with a problem with workforce insurance, she said.

"Things like that have been happening and they've been happening for some time but we've not been able to publicise it because it's been very important not to talk SSI down," she said.

"It is not lost on me, or indeed anybody else, the huge importance to this local community of the steelworks here in Redcar."

The company and union officials are in talks over the mothballing process, which involves keeping the coke ovens and the power station in operation in case of any resumption of steel production.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu said the news had been "a hammer blow".

"The government needs to be supporting the manufacturing sector, it has a critical role in our UK economy and in our regional economies as well," he said.