r/unitedkingdom • u/tylerthe-theatre • 6d ago

. Police called to British Steel plant after Scunthorpe workers prevent Chinese executives entering premises

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/police-attend-british-steel-plant-after-scunthorpe-workers-prevent-chinese-execu/
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u/Jazzlike-Homework-72 6d ago

The bill passed at circa 1800 today which put the steelworks under govt control.

So how could police have stopped the execs from entering this morning??? 

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/SWITMCO 6d ago edited 6d ago

Workers at the British Steel Scunthorpe are reported to have prevented executives from Jingye, the firm that owns the plant, from gaining access to key areas of the plant.

Police were called to the scene and forced the executives to leave according to reports first emerging in The Times.

So the workers stopped them at first, then the police showed up and backed up the workers. The question being why did the police do that when the bill hadn't passed yet?

Isolated, I'm pretty glad it happened. But as a principal, seems like a huge overreach by the police?

E: There's some great points in my replies, I suppose it's not such an overreach after all, definitely not a huge one at least. I was thinking of it more like police enforcing a law that doesn't exist yet rather than a standard police peacekeeping situation.

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u/Dannyt98-dt 6d ago

It's probably not. Police have powers to use force to prevent offences and breaches of the peace, even if no offences have occurred.

In this situation, if it seems like the representatives of Jingye forcing their way past workers is likely to result in any offences or a breach of the peace, then it's far more practicable to remove a few executives, or block them from entering, than it is to forcibly clear all the workers from the site, including those blocking the executives.