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We’ve heard plenty of talk about a Northern Powerhouse over recent days – but only after weeks of the Government acting like spectators while steelworkers in Redcar and Scunthorpe face losing their jobs .

We’ll only achieve the ambitions behind the Northern Powerhouse if giving more power to communities goes hand-in-hand with a proper industrial strategy.

But it has become clear during this steel crisis that Britain no longer has an industrial strategy.

This government has even made a virtue of not having one.

Civil servants have been told not to use the words ‘industrial policy’ because apparently it is not a sufficiently Conservative phrase.

I’m afraid that’s not good enough.

Our Government should have an official view about Britain’s future industrial capacity.

Instead they are offering the same short-sighted excuses that were used to withdraw support from Sheffield Forgemasters five years ago.

That loan would have positioned Forgemasters as a premier producer of components for nuclear power stations.

Now Britain’s nuclear energy future is being paid for with Chinese investment and built by French constructors .

It’s not only steelworkers whose prospects will be damaged if Ministers let our steel industry go to the wall.

The question of whether we save some of the best coke ovens and the largest blast furnace in our country has implications for our national security too.

It undermines our freedom and our influence if we become beholden to other countries for essential resources that we will need in the future.

If the UK becomes over-reliant on foreign imports then we risk the possibility of being effectively held to ransom by other regimes when steel prices change in the future.

(Image: Doug Moody)

These are decisions of profound national importance.

We shouldn’t wander into them without considering the long-term security consequences for our country.

That’s why I believe the steel crisis should be reviewed by the National Security Council and factored into the ongoing Strategic Defence & Security Review.

There is no evidence however that this has been considered.

Ministers seem content to let these steelworks close for good.

It feels foolish when the economic conditions could easily change in a few years’ time.

The first duty of any government is to safeguard our national security. Cameron and Osborne should think again and save our steel .

* Dan Jarvis is the Labour MP for Barnsley Central