MPs will travel back to Westminster on Saturday to have their say on the future of British Steel in Scunthorpe. For context, it's not often that Parliament sits on a Saturday: it's only happened 34 times since 1948, and the last occurrence was almost four years ago.

Yet it's quite right that the government has called them back to London as there can be few issues of more intrinsic national interest than the future of our steel industry.

Steel underpins our manufacturing base and is essential in maintaining our national defence and security capabilities and environmental ambitions. It also supports well paid jobs in areas beyond London and the South-East - boosting regional economies with significant supply chains.

Last year we lost the blast furnaces at Port Talbot. This should never have been allowed to happen. The bungling of the previous Conservative government - who agreed an utterly dreadful deal with Tata despite the unions setting out a viable alternative plan - ended a long and proud history of primary steelmaking in South Wales.

With the blast furnaces at Port Talbot closed, Scunthorpe is now the only primary steelmaking facility left in the UK. In that context, last month's announcement that British Steel's owners Jingye would be consulting on ending steelmaking on the site was deeply troubling.

Were Scunthorpe to close, Britain would become the only G7 country without domestic steelmaking capacity. That would be catastrophic at any time, let alone in the current era of global instability. National security would be threatened, as would plans to invest in infrastructure and growth across the country, with British Steel being one of the most important construction steels producers in Europe.

As the leading steelworkers' union, Community has been working closely with the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and his team who have been toiling around the clock to secure a future for British Steel.

We've seen first-hand that they recognise the strategic importance of steel, as they have demonstrated by committing to invest £2.5billion in the steel sector. After witnessing the previous government's half-hearted failure at Port Talbot, I can tell you that it's been a welcome breath of fresh air to sit around the table with people who actually get it.

Time is of the essence now though, especially with the raw materials needed to power the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe running in short supply. Today's vote in Parliament will allow the government to take back control of the situation - and we hope that MPs will get behind it.

Ultimately, in the absence of a long-term deal with Jingye to continue blast furnace operations at Scunthorpe - as part of a gradual transition to greener steelmaking - we want to see the government take urgent action taken to bring British Steel into public ownership.

One of our union's core campaign messages - Britain, We Need Our Steel - has never been truer than it is today.