Burnham-On-Sea MP Ashley Fox has warned that the Government’s Steel Industry Nationalisation Bill risks leaving taxpayers with a substantial financial burden while failing to address what he says is the real reason Britain’s steel sector is struggling — the high cost of electricity.
Speaking during the Bill’s Second Reading in the House of Commons, Fox pressed ministers on why the legislation does not tackle energy prices, arguing that no long‑term plan for steelmaking can succeed without reforming the UK’s electricity market.
He told MPs that neither the proposed government wealth fund nor private investors would back British steel production while power costs remain significantly higher than those faced by international competitors.
“There’s no point in this Bill until we fix the electricity market in this country,” he said during an intervention.
Fox later voted against the legislation, warning that nationalisation would not resolve the underlying issues and could leave taxpayers exposed to long‑term liabilities.
He said past nationalisations had shown that state‑run industries “are usually less efficient and less competitive” than those in private hands.
After the vote, he said the fundamental challenge facing British steelmaking was simple: energy costs are too high.
Without cheaper electricity, he argued, the UK will continue to struggle to compete internationally regardless of who owns the industry.
Fox said the Conservatives instead back measures aimed at reducing energy bills through the party’s Cheap Power Plan, which includes proposals to repeal the Climate Change Act, remove net zero levies and carbon taxes from electricity bills, and scrap subsidy schemes that the party argues inflate costs.
He also criticised Reform UK for voting with Labour in support of nationalisation, saying the Conservatives were “the only party making the case that businesses are run better by private enterprise than by the state”.
