Aberavon MP, Stephen Kinnock, has welcomed the results of a poll conducted by The Mirror which reveals that the public overwhelmingly support government intervention to protect the UK’s beleaguered steel industry.

The poll found that 68% of those questioned felt that the government should to intervene to safeguard the long term survival of the steel industry in the UK, with only 14% believing the government’s response to the crisis to have been adequate. 73% believed the government should ensure that tax-payer funded contracts use British steel, and 60%, including 54% of Tory voters, thought that the government should explore the option of temporarily nationalising the steel industry.

Mr Kinnock said, “The poll results show that the public fully understands and supports what the UK steel industry have been saying for years now in the face of the growing crisis, and what the government is finding so difficult to grasp: they MUST step in to protect the industry from crippling energy cost and business rates and tackle the dumping of cheap Chinese steel, as well as ensuring that tax-payer funded projects use steel produced in the UK, including here in my Aberavon Constituency. The public understand that a strong steel industry and manufacturing sector makes Britain more competitive, creates wealth and employs workers in highly skilled role. It is time that the Government also woke up to this realisation, and stood up to the mark to save our steel.”