Jonathan Hinder MP Column: It’s Time to Take Back Control

The steelworks crisis in Scunthorpe last week has laid bare what many of us have known for years - we’ve handed too much control of our vital industries to companies who don’t have Britain’s interests at heart.

When British Steel’s Chinese owners threatened to shut down the country’s last blast furnaces, this Labour government rightly stepped in to stop it. Not just to protect jobs, though thousands were at risk, but to protect our ability to make virgin steel in Britain at all. That should never be in question.

But our problem goes way beyond steel. Water, rail, mail, energy – sold off bit by bit over decades since the 1980s. Private firms now running the services our country depends on. Many of them based overseas. Their priority purely being profit. Not what is best for our people, as a public service, in the national interest.

We’d never dream of privatising the NHS – and rightly so (though I'm sure Nigel Farage might be keen), so why have we allowed other essential services to go the same way?

Privatisation hasn’t worked. Bills are up. Services are worse. Our infrastructure’s crumbling. And when it all goes wrong, taxpayers still have to step in to bail them out. All the hallmarks of a failed system.

We need to change course. That means bringing key industries back into public hands because it’s the only way to guarantee they’re run in the interests of the public. We need to rebuild a country that can stand on its own two feet again. Making things here in Britain again. Creating decent jobs. Investing in our communities. Putting power back in the hands of people we can hold to account, not unelected bodies and quangos.

It’s no wonder that trust in, and enthusiasm for, politics is at an all-time low. People have stopped feeling pride of place in their communities after years of governments failing to deliver the change they want. It’s left people feeling forgotten. Disillusioned. Like nothing ever changes.

This Labour government is rebuilding Britain, and the Prime Minister is absolutely right to say that this can only be achieved with a more active state. This is the moment to be bold. To take back control of the things that matter most to the British people, and to show them that politics can still change lives for the better.

In Parliament, I’ve joined other Labour MPs calling for exactly that. We’re pushing this government to be brave - to re-shape our economy so that it works for ordinary people.

As a nation, we’ve been asleep at the wheel for too long. What happened in Scunthorpe must be a wake-up call. We can’t keep letting vital assets slip through our fingers. We need to take back control – and this time, mean it.

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