Fact check: Parts of British Steel were sold in 2016

A widely shared online post claimed that “Boris Johnson sold British Steel to the Chinese for £1 in 2019.”

Evaluation

Tata Steel, a private company, sold its Scunthorpe steel plant and other parts of the business for £1 in 2016, long before Mr Johnson became prime minister.

The plant, and other parts of British Steel, were sold out of liquidation in 2019 when Mr Johnson was in power. The value of that deal was reported as either £50 million or £70 million.

The facts

In April 2016 – when David Cameron was prime minister and Mr Johnson was still mayor of London – Tata Steel agreed a deal to sell its Long Products Europe business to Greybull Capital.

The Long Products Europe business included among other things the Scunthorpe steel plant.

The sale was for “a nominal consideration” the press release at the time said – that is to say that Greybull paid a small amount of money for the Long Products Europe business. The nominal consideration was reported at the time to be £1 or one euro.

Three years later, in May 2019, the business that Greybull had bought – now known as British Steel Limited – was ordered into compulsory liquidation by the High Court.

Following that, parts of British Steel Limited, including the Scunthorpe plant, were bought by Jingye Steel in November 2019.

This was during the premiership of Boris Johnson.

The value of the deal was not announced. There were conflicting reports in the press about what Jingye paid, ranging from £50 million to £70 million.

Links

Post on X (archived)

Gov.uk – The Rt Hon Lord Cameron (archived)

Mayor of London – Former Mayors of London (archived)

British Steel – Tata Steel UK Limited agrees Sale and Purchase Agreement for Long Products Europe business (archived)

Britain finds a buyer for one Tata steel plant, saving a third of jobs at risk (archived)

Gov.uk – British Steel: Official Receiver’s update (archived)

Gov.uk – The Rt Hon Boris Johnson (archived)

China’s Jingye Group agrees outline deal to rescue British Steel (archived)

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