Opposition parties criticised the Government for not doing enough to save the British steel industry, while environmental campaigners said a lack of a forward thinking industrial strategy had left workers “high and dry”.

About 2,500 jobs could be lost in the next 18 months at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales, as Tata presses ahead with making steel more environmentally friendly, which needs a smaller workforce.

A further 300 roles could be affected in the next few years, which could include the potential consolidation and rationalisation of cold rolling assets in Llanwern, once the required investments are completed at Port Talbot.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The Government said it had a plan for steel. It transpires the plan involves thousands of redundancies. There’s a better plan, a multi-union plan, that the Government needs to look at again.”