Yorkshire Post reported that Mr Paul Scriven council leader of Sheffield has appealed to his political opponents to work with his cabinet to fight savage cuts in the steel industry in South Yorkshire.

As per report, Mr Coun Scriven leader of Liberal Democrat has sent an email to the deputy leader of the council's Labour group Mr Harry Harpham in what he described as a "spirit of cross party co-operation".

Mr Scriven said that "I believe that any Sheffield campaign will stand a better chance of being successful if we all work together. Therefore I have asked Labour to sign up to working on a cross party basis on this issue at the next council meeting. We are both calling for the same action from the government so there shouldn't be any reason why we can't work together. People don't want to see politicians bickering at times like this. Party politics should be put aside when we are talking about hundreds of families in Sheffield facing real financial hardship as a result of these job losses."

He added that he would table a proposal at the next meeting of the full council on July 29th 2009 suggesting that the council presents a united front to fight steel job losses. Labour leaders will be asked to second the motion.

Mr Harpham said that "Labour in Sheffield is trying to make sure that our steelworkers receive the best support possible to help protect them from further possible job cuts. I also understand the Liberal Democrats have a similar petition to ours up and running and I welcome that too, the more signatures, the better. This is the kind of support our steel workers deserve."

Both Mr Coun Scriven and Mr Harry Harpham in Sheffield have criticized a GBP 5 million grant which has been made available by the government to Corus to protect skills in the steel industry.

(Sourced from www.yorkshirepost.co.uk)