‘Brexit will be bad for everybody’: people in the steel town of Scunthorpe on leaving the EU On the third leg of his Brexit Britain tour, Dean Kirby visits the North Lincolnshire steel town of Scunthorpe

In the steel town of Scunthorpe, a sudden downpour causes shoppers in short sleeves to take shelter in the entrance of a multi-storey car park.

A homeless man lying asleep under a tree wakes up and moves to his begging position next to the bus station.



“They said there was only a five percent chance of it raining today,” a man can be overheard telling his wife. “They always get it wrong don’t they,” she says.

But the rain, which stops as quickly as it began, is a momentary distraction in a town that bears the heavy burden of worrying over the threatened survival of its steelworks.

A search is on to find a buyer after British Steel, which employs 3,000 people at the Scunthorpe plant, collapsed in May blaming uncertainty over Brexit. North Lincolnshire voted 66.3 percent to leave the EU.

‘Brexit will be bad for everybody’

“I think they should stop Brexit now,” says Steve Pike, who is among shoppers dodging the puddles on Scunthorpe’s High Street. “It’s been a huge waste of time and money.

”I voted Remain. We could have been worrying about other things over the last three years,“ the 43-year-old adds, ”but everything has been focused on Brexit. “Even if we come out, we’ll be spending the next 10 years negotiating with the EU and that will be another waste.



”It will be bad for Scunthorpe. It will be bad for everybody.“

Scunthorpe owes its existence to heavy industry. The town emerged amid the commercial exploitation of the local ironstone in the 1850s and expanded to bring together six villages.

Its steelworkers, so vital to the 1940s war effort, have fought and died for their livelihoods. Eleven lives were lost in an blast furnace explosion in 1975 – the UK steel industry’s worst disaster.

In 1980, they marched out of the gates for what was, until the 1984 miners’ strike, the largest walkout in postwar history. Eight years later, British Steel was privatised by Margaret Thatcher.

As Scunthorpe celebrated a century of steelmaking in 1990, its steel was being used in the construction of the central tower of London’s Canary Wharf – Europe’s then tallest building and a monument to Thatcherite capitalism.

But last year, with uncertainty stalking the UK economy, orders began to dry up. The plant’s closure would be a huge body blow for Scunthorpe. Steel is the lifeblood that supports thousands of jobs in the wider local economy. Some have warned that shutting off that blood supply would kill the town.

Martin Forester, from the Unite union, predicted in May that the plant could be “the first casualty of Brexit”.

“I know there are a lot of people saying we’re using Brexit as an excuse,” he said outside the plant at the time. “This is not an excuse. We have lost a lot of customers because of the uncertainty created by the Government. It could cost the business its future.”

Andrea Leadsom, the new Business Secretary, visited Scunthorpe over a week ago and said the Government was doing ”absolutely everything“ to find a buyer.

In the centre of the town near the Foundry shopping centre, where signs in some of the windows say ”Save Our Steel“, a sculpture made from Scunthorpe’s product, pays tribute to the workers for their ”contribution to the war effort, the British economy and to the building of this town“.

”To those who were injured or lost their lives in service on the steelworks, this is a debt that can never be repaid but will never be forgotten,“ it says.

‘I’m very proud of living in this town’

It is clear that Brexit is provoking strong emotions among people who were born and brought up in the town.

Pat Ebbs, 77, who runs a charity shop and cafe supporting children with autism, says she lived all over the world with her late husband, Matthew, who was in the RAF.

In the office at the back of the cafe, her eyes begin to fill with tears as she recounts flying over the white cliffs of Dover as they returned to Scunthorpe after living in Singapore.

”I’m very proud of living in this town,“ she says, her voice breaking. ”Some people don’t like Scunthorpe, but it’s a lovely place and the people here are fantastic people. They’ve supported our charity for 18 years.

“I voted Remain because I’ve lived in Germany and the standard of living over there is excellent. I wanted the same here. But I’ve changed my mind now and I want to leave Europe.

”I never thought I’d feel this way, but the EU has treated us appallingly since the referendum. We put Europe back together after the Second World War and we’re being treated so badly.

“But it’s appalling that the Government is not helping this town. What are we going to do if the steelworks closes? We need support. Andrea Leadsom will have to prove herself here.”



Some in the town appear uncertain about what Brexit will bring and even why they voted for it.

“I don’t like politics,” says Ray Palfreyman, who is smoking a pipe near the steelworkers’ memorial. “I’ve seen men fighting in the pub over politics before now. I don’t follow it.

”I voted Leave, but I don’t really know what Brexit is. Who does know really? It was easy getting into Europe but it’d hard getting out. I do think we’ll be better off out of it. It will be alright, but the politicians need a kick up the backside. They need to get on with it.“

But in a cafe near the steelworks,where the low hum of industry fills the air and where white smoke from the cooling towers rises up towards the darker rain clouds, a Leave voter named Karen is more certain.

”If it wasn’t for immigration, I wouldn’t have voted to leave the EU,“ she says, refusing to give her surname. ”I think we’ll go through a rough period for a few years when we leave, but then we will be fine.

“Britain has been great in the past and we’ll be great again. I back Boris Johnson all the way. He’s another Donald Trump.”

‘Scunthorpe used to be a beautiful town’

The rain has long since stopped now and two young boys can be seen jumping in the puddles on High Street. A busker is playing the Oasis song “Don’t Look Back in Anger” on an electric double bass outside Primark.

Ann Dodds, a 79-year-old Christian who used to work as a secretary at the steelworks, has just been talking to a homeless woman in a shop doorway. She is worried about the future.

“I was born in Scunthorpe,” she says. “It used to be a beautiful town. When I was a child, you could run up and down these streets and everyone was friendly. But it’s changed. You have to be careful who you talk to now. You say the wrong word and you’re in trouble.

”Look around and you’ll see homeless people and drug addicts. It isn’t their fault. Nobody is helping them.

“I don’t know what Brexit will entail, but people aren’t happy about it. Everybody blames the EU. I can’t support Boris Johnson after all the things he’s done. The Government needs to support the people who really need it. What are they going to do about that?”

”I worked at the steelworks after leaving school,“ she adds. ”There was nothing like. There were 120 of us in the typing pool. The boss, Miss Stoker, was a strong woman. She’d wrap us in the knuckles if we made a mistake.

“I wish I could go back, but I can’t, Those days are gone, but we still make the best steel in the world.”