The government would not do more for the steel industry, even if the EU allowed them to

Sajid Javid is the driest and most Thatcherite member of the government. So, it is no surprise that he is — rightly, to my mind — rejecting calls for the nationalisation of the steel industry following Tata’s announcement that it plans to sell its UK steel-making business.

But the steel issue has now got caught up in the EU referendum, with the Out side pointing out that EU state aid rules limit what the UK government can actually do to help the steel industry. Now, personally, I doubt that the government would want to do more even if it was allowed to. Yet, some ministers keep suggesting that the government would do more if it could. Anna Soubry told Today this morning, ‘We have to be very careful because we have these state aid rules, which have been established for well over 50 years.’ This is one of the issues that the EU creates, an uncertainty among voters about who is actually responsible for what.