In 1976, night-shift steelworkers at Templeborough – then the world’s largest electric arc plant – broke a production record. A letter from Prime Minister Jim Callaghan awaited them, hailing the shift a triumph for the state-owned plant and for Britain. It might be back to the future after Sir Keir Starmer greeted Scunthorpe workers this weekend, to mark his government taking control of British Steel from its Chinese owners.

The UK has stumbled – or rather been dragged – back into industrial policy. After decades of laissez‑faire hand-wringing, the looming closure of Britain’s last blast furnaces forced the business secretary’s hand. Nationalisation, a word redolent of postwar statecraft, is back on the table. And rightly so.

Britain’s policymakers are waking up to the fact that strategic sovereignty isn’t a quaint 1945 idea – it’s the key to energy transition, secure supply chains and a functioning economy. Steel is also about political memory, local identity and who gets a future. That question has long been answered unevenly – and steel regions are where the consequences land hardest. Chris McDonald, Labour MP for Stockton North and former chief executive of the UK’s steel innovation centre,

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