For the Westminster bubble and much of the media, a row over a Sheffield heavy engineering firm will sound like a small fight about a faraway place involving an industry of which they would rather know nothing.
But the Sheffield Forgemasters scandal is going to swell, as it shows the crude and incompetent workings of the Conservative Liberal Democrat Government. It highlights how Nick Clegg does not understand that all politics is local and if you betray the city where you are an MP and viciously slur one of its most respected business leaders, you will not be forgiven or forgotten.
Just before the House of Commons rose for its summer break, there were amazing scenes as a Treasury minister had to explain why a leading Tory donor had successfully intervened to stop the agreed Government loan of £80 million to Sheffield Forgemasters.
Earlier this year, Treasury officials pred over the details of this loan needed to help the company buy a giant press to make forgings for the new nuclear plant needed to replace Britain’s ageing nuclear power stations.
Whitehall agreed that this loan, which was hedged in with all sorts of qualifications, was a good proposal even at a time of fiscal austerity. Then came the general election. Shortly after the Tory-Lib Dem coalition was formed Andrew Cook, a right-wing Sheffield Tory businessman, told the new Prime Minister to kill the deal.
Cook has given £500,000 to the Tories and paid for aeroplane flights by David Cameron. In Sheffield, his reputation as a rancid, reactionary Europhobe and as a union-busting boss is well known. There are other Cook stories not fit for a family magazine such as Tribune. His sister is the former Tory MP Angela Knight, who now heads the British Bankers Association. British banks have refused to step in and provide the loan for Sheffield Forgemasters on terms the company can afford.
As a Sheffield MP, Nick Clegg should have tried to support this iconic Sheffield firm. All politics remains local. Can anyone imagine John Prescott sacrificing a Hull company to please the Treasury? The loan could have been reduced or re-packaged, but Clegg rolled over to do what the Tories wanted.
But the Lib Dem leader, as we can see with his gaffe over the “illegal” Iraq war, is just inexperienced. The idea that a minister can stand at the despatch box and speak in a personal capacity is as laughable as it is unconstitutional.
Clegg went further. Blustering his way into more South Yorkshire trouble, he made an extraordinary allegation against Sheffield Forgemasters’ chief executive Graham Honeyman – namely that Honeyman was protecting his shareholdings. On June 21, Clegg said: “Do I think it is the role of government to help out owners of companies who do not want to dilute their own shareholdings? No I don’t.”
A furious Honeyman wrote to the Yorkshire Post on June 23, rebutting Clegg’s allegations and pointing out that: “No dividends have been paid because this company does not hinge around making money for shareholders or individual gain. It has been at considerable personal risk that I have been involved”.
These slurs and smears against Graham Honeyman are a disgrace. If Labour ministers had been involved in a similar scandal, all hell would have let loose. But this story is not being picked up anywhere – so far. It should be, as it shows how Tory donors are now involved in key Government decisions, how Nick Clegg cannot help his own constituents and the city where he was parachuted in as an MP, and how he lashes out with foolish, ill-advised statements unbecoming an MP, let alone a minister.
Sheffield MPs Clive Betts, Paul Blomfield, Angela Smith and Meg Munn have united in a brilliant piece of teamwork together with Shadow Business Secretary Pat McFadden to unveil this saga to an incredulous House of Commons. There now needs to be an investigation by either the select committee of the Department of Business or some other parliamentary body that can get to the bottom of this scandal.
This story is not over yet. But Nick Clegg will not win re-election in Sheffield unless he stands as a Conservative Liberal without a Tory candidate against him. I will pay for any Westminster journalist to go to South Yorkshire and mention the words “Sheffield Forgemasters” and “Nick Clegg” and see what reaction they get. The failure of the national media to explore this scandal is shameful.
Denis MacShane is Labour MP for Rotherham
