Step in to save the 1,700 jobs at the Redcar steelworks, Jeremy Corbyn tells David Cameron

The Government must intervene to save a Teesside steel plant from mothballing after a company said it would pull out, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

The Labour leader said David Cameron should act at the last minute to save 1,700 jobs at the SSI Redcar plant, which is facing a shutdown.

On Monday Thai company SSI said would mothball iron and steel production at the site for up five years, citing low steel prices and a lack of demand.

In his keynote speech to Labour’s conference Mr Corbyn said the British government should follow the example of the Italian government which has previously stepped in to save jobs.

“Look at the Tory failure to intervene to support our steel industry as the Italian government has done,” he said.

“The company has said that it will mothball the plant and lay the workers off, therefore it is not too late now, again, to call on the Prime Minister even at this late stage, this 12th hour, to step in and defend those people, like the Italian government has done.

“Why can’t the British government? What is wrong with them?”

Plantworkers have told the BBC that the shutdown will devastate the community in Redcar, where the plant is one of the biggest employers.

The move forms part of Mr Corbyn’s new hands-on industrial strategy which stresses state promotion of enterprise.

The Labour party on Sunday appointed a new committee of economic advisors to work on its policies, including advocate of the “entrepreneurial state” Marian Mazzucato.

Other big names include French inequality theorist Thomas Piketty and Nobel prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz.

On Monday shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he would set up a state soverign wealth fund and state investment banks to help invest in infrastructure and productive capacity in the British economy.

He also pledged to turn the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills into a Department for Economic Development and give it expanded powers to encourage industry.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has called on the Government to divise a rescue plan for the plant’s steelmaking and ironmaking capability.

“Do we really think that Angela Merkel would sit by and let the German steel industry go down the pan? Certainly not,” she said.

The Government has resisted calls to rescue the plant, however.

Business Minister Anna Soubry said on Monday that the best workers could hope for was that steelmaking could restart there in the future.

“Despite everyone’s recent efforts to help SSI this is very sad news and a big blow for the workforce and their families,” she said.

“I hope that SSI’s announcement that they are mothballing the furnace gives some hope that steel making could be restarted on Teesside in the future.

“The steel industry across the UK is facing very challenging economic conditions. The price of steel has almost halved over the past year, with overproduction in the world market. While government cannot alter these conditions, I have called a steel summit to see what more can be done to help our steel industry.”