With Parliament in recess, political pundits could have been forgiven for thinking they would have a quiet week.
How wrong they were.
On Tuesday, Tata announced it was selling off its UK steel division after losing a million pounds a day keeping the factories going.
While Labour's Stephen Kinnock was in Mumbai to put pressure on the Tata board ahead of the crunch meeting, Business Secretary Sajid Javid was in Australia on a trade trip.
Javid cut his trip short to return home, but not before ruling out renationalising the steel industry.
David Cameron today held an emergency meeting with ministers, but as yet no concrete proposals have been put forward on how to deal with the crisis.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn travelled to Port Talbot to visit workers whose jobs are under threat, and also urged for Parliament to be recalled to discuss the developments.
Brexiters seized on the crisis as evidence of how being in the EU means the UK is powerless to protect the industry from Chinese steel dumping practices.
However, it was confirmed this week that the UK is still blocking Brussels-led plans to increase tariffs on Chinese steel.