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Amid mounting fears for the future of Liberty Steel, figures uncovered by Labour Party showed that British steel production plunged by a fifth over the past decade. Labour party blamed a decade of Conservative indifference as it cited figures revealing a 21.5% drop since 2010. Labour Party’s Shadow Business Minister Ms Lucy Powell said “It’s absolutely crucial we protect our country’s steel industry, which provides highly-skilled jobs across the country and equips us to build critical infrastructure like railways, hospitals and schools. But a decade of Conservative indifference has seen steelmaking production plummet in a huge hit to our economy, risking jobs and livelihoods, whilst other countries across Europe have backed their steel industries to grow. Labour would stand up for our steelmakers with a proper industrial strategy, supporting the industry to decarbonise, and putting in place stronger targets to buy British steel. And we would step up, not stand back, and protect jobs and plants at Liberty Steel.”
Data from the EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, showed that, using 2015 as a base year, the UK went from 104.6% in 2010 to 83.1% in 2019 on the EU index of industrial production measure for steel and basic metal. Separate figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found the UK's steelmaking capacity dropped by a third over the decade. The maximum theoretical equipment capacity fell from 18.7 million tonnes in 2010 to just 12.1 million tonnes by 2019.