News

Sky news are reporting today that the new owners of IBC/ Vauxhall, Magna, will cut more than 1,800 jobs in the UK at the Ellesmere Port and Luton plants.  This speculation only adds to the anxiety for Vauxhall workers at Luton and Ellesmere Port, and all the impacted families have my sympathies.

If true, then yet again Luton families will bear the brunt of Labour's failures.

If German jobs are saved while British jobs in more efficient plants are sacrificed, then that will be a political failure of truly epic proportions. 

Mandelson and Brown were unforgiveably slow at responding to the problems of the UK car industry (especially compared to how quick they were to pour billions into failing banks) - and they have been completely outmanoeuvered by their German counterparts over GM Europe. 

Ken Clarke has been urging the British Government to "get up to speed" with the negotiations being led by the German Government for some time and Conservatives suggested loan guarantees for the car industry as long ago as last November as part of a massive £50billion industry loan guarantee programme - meanwhile the Government dithered for months as car sales collapsed and as the German Government worked out a good deal for German workers with the new owners.

What the government must now do is demand a proper business plan from Magna, to provide some certainty and hope that the plants have a long term future. The government must do what it can to preserve jobs in all commercially viable companies, and be prepared to help those who might be made redundant with rapid reskilling and support in finding new employment, quicky.

Labour's legacy in Luton will not be a proud one: thousands of jobs lost while the local MP sits back, licking her self inflicted expense wounds as her constituents suffer.  Unforgiveable negligence.