The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday condemned the United States's decision to impose tariffs on steel imports as "unacceptable and wrong". During question time in the Commons, he said the problems of the US steel industry could best be solved by "restructuring" rather than the imposition of "arbitrary and unjustified tariffs". And, warning that the tariffs would hit producers throughout the EU, the prime minister told MPs Britain's concerns would be raised at every level of government.

Mr Blair had the support of the Conservative leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, who also described the US decision as "wholly unacceptable". However, there was embarrassment for Mr Blair as the Tory leader returned to the question of the prime minister's recent controversial support for Labour donor Mr Lakshmi Mittal's takeover of the Romanian steel industry.

Mr Duncan Smith repeated claims that Mr Mittal had spent $600,000 (€684,775) lobbying the US government for such tariffs and challenged Mr Blair: "Will you stand by your statement of a few weeks ago when you said of Mr Mittal's firm LNM: 'I'm delighted that a British-based company has succeeded'?" Mr Blair re-stated government policy without taking up the reference to Mr Mittal.

However, Mr Duncan Smith pressed the point: "We've got a problem here because the company you celebrated as a British company actually spent $600,000 lobbying the US government to impose tariffs on steel imports. Those tariffs will of course affect the UK steel industry. And as one chief executive put it: 'The only measure we have had out of 10 Downing Street on steel is their support for a non-UK steel manufacturer'."

The Tory leader continued: "It took you 30 seconds to write a letter supporting a non-British company producing anti-British policies, yet it takes you months to write a letter to the US president standing up for British interests."

Mr Blair retorted he would take no lessons from a Conservative Party which, when in government, "destroyed 100,000 British Steel jobs".