MIDLANDS steelworkers took to the streets yesterday to protest against the government’s refusal to support their industry after months of lay-offs.

The 250 steel workers at Caparo in Oldbury, West Midlands, will become just a few of the 5,000 whose jobs have been axed in the last four months when the site closes.

Caparo went into administration on Monday.

“The majority of the jobs at Caparo are highly skilled manufacturing jobs based here in making products for Honda, Ford, Rolls Royce and British Aerospace,” said steel union GMB organiser Russell Farrington.

“The steel industry has been the cornerstone of the industrial life of the Black Country.

“If we don’t do something soon, this industry will be completely destroyed. Around 1,500 employees of Caparo in this region alone are facing the prospect of losing their jobs.”

The Caparo closure came on the heels of announcements by Indian-owned Tata of 729 job losses in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Wednesbury, 250 jobs in Llanwern in Wales, by Thai-owned SSI of 2,200 jobs the Redcar steelworks in Redcar on Teesside and a further 1,200 Tata jobs in Lincolnshire and Lanarkshire.

The government’s response has been to point steel workers towards “retraining opportunities.”

A package of up to £9 million — £3m from Tata Steel and £6m from the government — has been announced to support steelworkers and local economies hit by the latest wave of job cuts in the industry.

But Labour shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said it was too little, too late.

“The steel industry has been in crisis and the Tory government has sat on its hands and allowed thousands of high-skilled jobs to be lost,” she said.

The Italian and French governments have intervened with subsidies to support their own steel industries as they face plummeting market prices.

West Bromwich West Labour MP Adrian Bailey said: “This is a grim day for employees in the Black Country. It is a reflection of the wider problems within the steel industry and the indifference of the government to a situation which has been obvious for a long time.”

Business Secretary Sajid Javid simply admitted: “It is a very difficult time” for the steel industry workforce.