Business Secretary Sajid Javid faced calls to quit after it emerged he took his daughter with him on a trip to Australia while the UK’s steel industry faced a crisis.
The Cabinet minister has cut short his visit to Sydney to return to the UK following the the shock decision by Indian conglomerate Tata to sell its UK assets, including the giant steelworks at Port Talbot in South Wales.
But the plant’s local MP and unions were furious that Mr Javid appeared to have gone on the trip for not “entirely work-related” reasons, with his teenage daughter accompanying him.
Mr Javid had yet to arrive back in the UK when David Cameron held an emergency meeting of ministers in Downing Street to discuss Tata’s decision, which could put thousands of jobs at risk.
A spokesman for the Business Secretary said: “We can confirm that Mr Javid’s daughter accompanied him on his visit to Australia. There was no cost to the taxpayer.”
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberavon seat includes the Port Talbot plant, said Mr Javid should consider quitting, claiming the latest revelation was a further indication of the Government’s lack of interest in the steel industry.
Mr Kinnock travelled to Mumbai with representatives of the workforce including the Community union’s general secretary Roy Rickhuss in an attempt to lobby Tata to keep the loss-making steelworks open.
“We have known for months that March 29 was going to be D Day for the British steel industry, with up to 40,000 jobs on the line,” he said.
“The Business Secretary was not even in the country, he chose to jet off to Australia. He should have been in Mumbai with me and Roy Rickhuss.”
He added: “I think, given the magnitude of what was happening and the fact it appears that he was not even in Australia for entirely work-related reasons, he should consider his position.”
In a criticism of the Government led by Mr Cameron, who represents Witney in Oxfordshire, he added: “I really wonder whether, if they had steelworks in Oxfordshire, would we have this level of disengagement?”
A spokesman for the Unite union said: “Everybody needs a holiday and time with their family. But with alarm bells ringing in the steel industry it is remarkable and does pose questions as to how alert the Secretary of State was to the latest crisis facing the industry.
“With tens of thousands of livelihoods in the balance and the nation facing an industrial crisis, David Cameron needs to personally take charge to protect steel and deliver on the Government’s promise to secure the future for the industry.”
Following the meeting in Downing Street Mr Cameron said the Government was “doing everything it can” to resolve the steel crisis but nationalisation was not the right answer.
The situation in Port Talbot was of “deep concern” and there were “no guarantees of success”, the Prime Minister said before travelling to Washington for a summit on nuclear security.
Mr Cameron defended the way the crisis had been handled, insisting the intervention had stopped an outright closure.
He said: “The situation at Port Talbot is of deep concern. I know how important those jobs are.
“Those jobs are vital to workers’ families, vital to those communities and the Government will do everything it can working with the company to try and secure the future of steelmaking in Port Talbot and across our country, it’s a vital industry.”
Mr Cameron said energy costs in the industry had been cut and the Government had helped to make sure there were penalties for steel dumping.
“We are not ruling anything out. I don’t believe nationalisation is the right answer.”
Mr Rickhuss said Mr Cameron’s statement had been “underwhelming” and added: “The Prime Minister had the gall to state that his intervention with Tata was responsible for securing a ‘sales process’ but the sad truth is that Business Department ministers didn’t take the opportunity to join us in Mumbai and the Government was nowhere to be seen.
“Now, thousands of steelworkers are faced with an uncertain future as their workplaces are put up for sale.”
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Warm words won’t secure a future for the British steel industry.
“It’s time for the Government to put its money where its mouth is. We need urgent and comprehensive government action, not the confused response we’ve seen so far.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose petition calling for the recall of Parliament to react to the crisis has been signed by more than 115,000 people, said: “The Prime Minister has offered no solutions today to the threat to our steel industry. His government is failing thousands of Tata steelworkers whose jobs are on the line.
“It’s not good enough for David Cameron to stand by and say the situation is difficult.”