"WE are, and have, and continue to look at, all options and I do mean all options.”

At first glance these were sensible comments by Business Minister Anna Soubry this week as the Government weighed up whether to step in and rescue British steelmaking from its latest – and arguably gravest crisis.

Asked if the Government could take a temporary stake in Tata’s loss-making Port Talbot plant so that a buyer can be found, Ms Soubry said: “That is an option.”

However, Ms Soubry, has a habit of blurting out well intended sound bites that later do not stand up to scrutiny.

A couple of weeks ago for example, ahead of a visit to Redcar where she met former SSI workers who have managed to find new jobs, the minister was asked if there was a plan in place to clean up the site so it could attract new investors. Bearing in mind some of this land - where Teessiders have made iron and steel for more than a century - will be heavily polluted, her answer that ‘it might be turned into a nature reserve’ was at best fanciful, and given Redcar’s desperate need for new jobs, a horribly misjudged response.

It exposed a government floundering to put together a coherent response to a national crisis.

Ms Soubry has been the public face of David Cameron’s Government throughout the sorry saga which could result in the end of steelmaking in Britain. Neither Mr Cameron nor George Osborne ever visited SSI while it was operating or been to the area since its demise. Prince Charles recently visited Teesside to show his support for families coping with the closure, but the Prime Minister and Chancellor have steered clear. They might not have been able to do anything meaningful but they would at least have seen for themselves what happens to an area when you let its key employer suddenly shut down.

Instead Ms Soubry is left to defend the Government’s position with little in the way of visible support from her senior colleagues.

It has been particularly worrying to see ministers reacting to events once things are too late – such as setting up a fighting fund for Redcar in the wake of SSI’s closure or considering throwing cash at Port Talbot – rather than use their strategic influence to protect British assets.

Mr Osborne’s high profile trade mission to China last year showed that when the Government is serious about wooing overseas investors it pulls out all of the stops. However, while a delegation from the British steel industry travelled to Mumbai this week to plead their case with Tata the Business Secretary – Ms Soubry’s boss - was in Australia.

"We will do all we can to ensure steelmaking has a future in Redcar," the Prime Minister said last year.

"We are, and have, and continue to look at all options," Ms Soubry said this week.

It is time for the Government to stop making vague promises it cannot or has no intention of keeping and showing that it cares about the future of a foundation British industry that will provide the steel girders for its much vaunted high speed rail and infrastructure projects.

If Tata UK fails to find a buyer then it's increasingly likely that we will be forced to source our steel from China and India. Unless the Government gets a grip of this crisis then the Northern Powerhouse with be forged from Eastern steel.