BRITISH Steel announced today that it will close down the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in a move that unions say could cost up to 2,000 jobs.

But bosses and the government were warned that workers will not stand back and watch the industry be dismantled.

British Steel owner Jingye Group, which is based in China, plans to shut down its blast furnaces at the Lincolnshire plant and replace them with less environmentally damaging electric arc furnaces.