BROMSGROVE MP and Business Secretary Sajid Javid tweeted on social media about his visit to Port Talbot to discuss plans for the future of the UK steel industry - which he has said was "very productive".

Mr Javid returned from a trade visit to Australia this morning to discuss long term plans with staff, management and the Welsh ecnomony minister Edwina Hart, but has been criticised for his absence during the crisis - and for taking his daughter on the trip.

A FORMER Worcestershire parliamentary candidate today urged Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid to resign as Business Secretary - saying she is "gobsmacked" by his handling of Britain's steel crisis.

Councillor Joy Squires, who tried to win the Worcester seat for Labour at last year's General Election, has accused him of planning a family holiday in Australia with the industry "in meltdown".

Mr Javid, widely seen as a rising star of the Tory Party, has chaotically abandoned an official trade visit to Sydney for emergency talks with Tata steel after 40,000 jobs were put at risk across the UK.

Mr Javid arrived back in the UK this morning, but it emerged yesterday that he took his teenage daughter with him to Australia and even planned to extend his trip into a family holiday before coming back early on David Cameron’s orders.

Councillor Squires said: "I was gobsmacked to read that Sajid Javid had planned a family holiday in Australia after the trade convention he was supposed to attend.

"And all this while our national, strategically important steel industry is in meltdown and 40,000 jobs at stake.

"Sajid Javid must have known about the crisis facing Tata and the meetings they had planned - if he didn't then he is clearly not up to the job.

"And frankly the same is true of the Prime Minister and Chancellor who were also out of the country while this crisis unfolded."

"They were poorly briefed by Javid or worse, don't actually care that much."

The criticism by Councillor Squires follows growing pressure from other politicians and union workers for him to consider his position.

Mr Javid's Australian trip coincided with Tuesday’s crunch Tata board meeting in Mumbai, planned months ago, which led to the steel giant’s decision to sell its UK business.

He was ordered back by the Prime Minister after just 15 hours on Australian soil, following a chaotic period in which he considered not getting off the plane at all when it arrived in Sydney at 6am on Wednesday morning, before deciding he had to meet the country’s new premier.

A spokesman for Mr Javid has stressed that the MP paid personally for his own daughter's costs to accompany him.

He said: "We can confirm that Mr Javid's daughter accompanied him on his visit to Australia. There was no cost to the taxpayer."

After touching down in London he is due to visit the Welsh steel plant at Port Talbot today, which is facing 4,000 job losses alone.

Mr Javid said: "I’m going to Port Talbot to meet staff and management, who are understandably extremely anxious about their future.

"I will listen to them, and I want to reassure them myself that the Government is on their side in working hard to achieve a long term solution for them, for the region and for the wider UK steel industry."