The news this week that Tata steel is set to close its Port Talbot steelworks this year, jeopardising and enormous three thousand jobs, is devastating for the workers, for Wales and for the British economy. It also speaks to a bigger challenge we face as a country, which is how to decarbonise heavy industry in a way which is effective for our climate and fair for our communities.

The Government’s push to decarbonise the steel works at both Port Talbot and Scunthorpe in a way which guarantees large job losses risks irrevocably damaging people’s trust in the opportunities the net zero transition could bring.

I am working on an alternative way forward. My plan is not based on misplaced nostalgia for the past, but on hard-headed realities, and an assessment of our national interest. UK Steel is not a sunset industry. It is central to a modern, low carbon economy.

This week when leading this debate in the House of Commons I was delighted to welcome many steelworkers to the Public Gallery.

Men like Alan who have worked at Port Talbot for 40 years, as did his father, as did both his grandfathers. And Gary, who has worked there for 37 years, and his son now works in the hot mill. Men and women from Port Talbot, from Scunthorpe and from Trostre, some who started as apprentices.

I took the opportunity to thank them for the contribution they and their families had made to the UK, over many generations. Last year I went several times to steel sites across Wales, and I met the workforce at Port Talbot when these plans were first announced. They deserve better.

Greening the steel industry is an urgent priority, with costs rising if we wait it out, but getting that transition right is more important than doing it quickly. To state the obvious, we can decarbonise anything by shutting it down. We cannot simply offshore our emissions, slash British jobs and call that progress.

Labour has a plan to build a better Britain, and we want to build those new homes, new infrastructure and new industries with British steel. We have earmarked £3 billion of investment to deliver that, all of which is predicated on unlocking much larger sums of private investment.

Under Labour, decarbonisation will never mean deindustrialisation. Our steel sector won’t just be British heritage. It will be Britain’s future.