It made quite remarkable progress in doing so considering it had only three years in which to do it, because we must remember that the Crisis in the Steel Industry started in 1936 when the demands for war production were beginning to appear.

The lobbies have come to this House about the Crisis in the Steel Industry.

As we all know, there is a Crisis in the Steel Industry.

If the British car industry could regain such a large section of the home market, the Crisis in the Steel Industry would vanish almost overnight.

Will the Leader of the House confirm that there is no technical reason why the meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee on Wednesday next should not discuss the Crisis in the Steel Industry, and that the reason that there will not be a change of subject is that the Government are unwilling to have a debate at that time?

Is the corporate plan as proposed by the BSC the answer to the current Crisis in the Steel Industry?

The Minister said that there was a manifest Crisis in the Steel Industry within the Community.

That forms the foundation on which policies can be formulated, agreed and implemented on a Community basis to help to reduce the more painful consequences of the Crisis in Our Steel Industry in particular and in the steel industry of Europe as a whole.

There is a huge Crisis in the Steel Industry, not only in the public sector but, as the Minister rightly says, in the private sector.

As the House knows only too well, last autumn the European Community declared a state of manifest Crisis in the Steel Industry.

There is a manifest Crisis in the Steel Industry not only in Britain but world-wide.

They form the basis for the package of Community measures to combat the continuing Crisis in the Steel Industry, on which the Council of Ministers reached agreement ad referendum at its meetings on 4 June and 24 June which I attended.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin: I last met Mr. MacGregor on 19 October to discuss the present Crisis in the Steel Industry.

Does the Leader of the House accept that there is a continuing Crisis in the Steel Industry?

In view of the interest over the Crisis in the Steel Industry and in view of the meeting which I understand the Secretary of State for Industry will be attending in France this afternoon, may I ask whether the Secretary of State for Industry will make a statement on the matter?

There is, indeed, as the right hon. Member for Salford, West (Mr. Orme) and others have implied, a monstrous Crisis in the Steel Industry.

The international Crisis in the Steel Industry is due to the artificial cut in general demand due to deflationary policies.

What does he propose to do about the mounting Crisis in the Steel Industry?

The debate is taking place against the background of a Crisis in the Steel Industry.

It could safely be said that the Crisis in the Steel Industry is due to lack of demand, and especially to the decline in our manufacturing industry.

I have the utmost sympathy for those in the steel-making areas, in my hon. Friend's constituency and elsewhere, who have faced the serious personal and community stresses that the Crisis in the Steel Industry has thrown up.

The House is only too well aware of the background to the domestic and international Crisis in the Steel Industry.

The commissioning of a much-needed general hospital atWishaw - awaited for many years - is hardly a tailor-made response to the Crisis in the Steel Industry.

Will the right hon. Gentleman now tell the Commission what he failed to tell it in December, and that is that there will be no more cuts in steel capacity in Britain until the rest of Europe have matched the cuts in capacity that we have already made, and that the solution to the Crisis in the Steel Industry in Europe is to wind down subsidies to capacity in the least efficient companies, not to fine British Steel and threaten the most efficient steel plants in Europe?

I am thinking, for example, of the current serious Crisis in the Steel Industry.

We should be making a case for manufacturing industry and for steel, not talking about a Crisis in the Steel Industry.

There has been an almost permanent Crisis in the Steel Industry, because it is cyclical.

All of us across the political spectrum agree that there is a Crisis in the Steel Industry in Wales, and we support any measure that will alleviate the problem.

But have we got sufficient grip in responding to the Crisis in the Steel Industry?

Will the Prime Minister join me and the rest of the all-party group for the steel and metal related industry to call on the leadership in Mumbai to intervene directly in this situation and get their colleagues in Tata Europe to get back around the table and avoid potentially the worst Crisis in the Steel Industry in 35 years?

The Crisis in the Steel Industry has been caused not only by the fall in world demand but by the increase in the costs imposed on producers in the UK because of green energy policies that have put electricity prices up by twice those of our competitors.

I was proud to secure a Backbench Business Committee debate on the Crisis in the Steel Industry.

The Government cannot say that they were not warned about the Crisis in the Steel Industry.

Will the Leader of the House arrange for a statement and a debate in Government time on what discussions the UK Government have had with the Welsh Government regarding the urgent Crisis in the Steel Industry?

It is hugely important that workers who are affected by the Crisis in the Steel Industry get whatever help can be provided.

Again, we are debating the Crisis in the Steel Industry in the context of thousands of job losses, closures of steel plants, and an industry hanging by a thread, with the livelihoods of 20,000 workers, their families and communities under threat, and all that in an industry worth £9.

] If we take a step back, we can allacknowledge that there is a global Crisis in the Steel Industry, with tens of thousands of jobs lost across Europe alone and many tens of thousands beyond that.