Video extra: It’s time Labour learned to govern

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Labour has made a mess of managing British Steel.  It had no strategy and no plan, and hadn't had the foresight to see the consequences of this. It is time it learned to govern.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:


Labour has made a complete mess of its strategy around the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe.

I can tell you how I know that. The contrast between Labour and Network Rail lets me realise that there are managers in the UK economy who can see a crisis coming and take action to prevent it impacting their business.

Network Rail has stockpiled more than a year's worth of steel track - the stuff that they have to lay to replace worn-out rail to ensure that they can get through any crisis at Scunthorpe and change their supply lines for the future.

The government, on the other hand, reached the point where, on Saturday last week, we had to have an emergency session of Parliament because they hadn't anticipated the fact that the Chinese owners of the Scunthorpe plant might not play ball with the government with regard to its future operation.

Labour had no strategy, no plan, hadn't had the foresight to see the consequences of this, and as a result had to panic and even now does not know how it can guarantee that the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe might remain open.

That is a staggering indication of management failure by Labour, and they can't blame the Tories. They've been in office for nine months now. That's long enough for this to be their problem, which they should have dealt with, they should have managed, and they should have delivered a strategy upon.

It's time Labour admitted its own mistakes, and it's time Labour learned to govern.


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