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The Department for International Trade appearsto be taking the steel safeguarding issue to the absolute deadline.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told MPs that the government is still considering the recommendation to do away with almost half of the protection measures aimed at stopping the dumping of cheap imports.

Fears of the harm it could cause to domestic production have been expressed by industry, unions and cross-party MPs after the Trade Remedies Authority suggested Secretary of State Liz Truss should remove nine of the 19 categories.

The EU has renewed all measures for a further three years , heightening fears the º£½ÇÊÓƵ could be seen as a soft touch, and opening the floodgates.

At today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Jacob Young, Conservative MP for Redcar, sought an update from Mr Johnson.

Quoting his own words that the “steel industry is an asset of national strategic importance,” Mr Young asked what was being done, with the measures set to expire tonight.

In a debate and subsequent vote that saw an attempt to invoke emergency legislation to overrule the TRA and buy more time thwarted last week, Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena had warned it risked losing all protections.

Mr Johnson said: “We have an ambitious plan to transform our country with better use of British Steel. There is a 7.6 million (tonne) pipeline of steel waiting to be bought and used over the next decade and as for the recommendations of the Trade Remedies Authority, the government is considering them and the Department for International Trade will update the house later today.”