The beleaguered steel industry can “thrive nationally and globally” if ministers follow a blueprint to save the sector, MPs insist.

The Steel 2020 masterplan drawn up by a cross-party task force of MPs to save the industry and 40,000 jobs will be published tomorrow.

It has 43 recommendations and dentifies seven key areas, including slashing energy prices for manufacturers, imposing tough “defence” measures to tackle Chinese dumping, and striking a “strong trade deal” with the EU after Brexit .

Theresa May will today promise that ministers will “step up” and take an active role in backing business, as she unveils the Government’s industrial strategy.

Labour MP Anna Turley, a member of the steel task force whose Redcar constituency was hit by the 2015 closure of the SSI plant, said: “The Government’s got to have a proper, long-term strategy, not just lurch from one crisis to another. If you don’t have a strategy and vision for steel, it will be lost.”

Labour’s Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock, whose constituency includes Port Talbot steelworks, said: “With strategic action from government and the industry we can build a better future for the British steel industry, trigger a modern manufacturing renaissance and rebalance the British economy.”

The report warns that “without action the industry and communities represented risk a future of perpetual crisis and decline”.

Urging Mrs May to hand Government contracts to British manufacturers, the report urges: “We must stand up for the British steel industry.”

Mrs May said her industrial strategy would “back Britain for the long term, creating the conditions where successful businesses can emerge and grow”.