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Peugeot (Coventry)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on securing the debate and I thank both him and you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to contribute briefly to it. There is a broad measure of agreement on this. Points about Peugeot can be made on which I know MPs and councillors across the political spectrum feel very strongly. I hope that the Minister accepts that feeling on this matter is equally strong across the political spectrum. The reason is, as hon. Members have already said, that this company has cut the ground from under the work force in Peugeot not once or twice, but three times. It has done so, first, by indicating that the successor model to the Peugeot 206 would not be built at the Ryton plant; secondly, by announcing that the closure of the plant would take place in July 2007; and thirdly, as has been said, by bringing that date forward to January of next year. The company has obligations to its work force that it must honour, and, as the Minister may know, 450 members of the work force still do not have a job or further training to go on to. I hope that she will be able to put what pressure she can on Peugeot to honour those obligations. I have only one complaint about this Adjournment debate. Its title is erroneous. The Peugeot plant that we are discussing is not in Coventry, but in Warwickshire and in my constituency. I do not make that point purely for the sake of geographical accuracy. I accept that the hon. Gentlemen who have spoken and the other Members in the Chamber have a legitimate constituency interest in what is happening, but I raise the point because the Government and the Minister are also engaged in a review of assisted area status. Warwickshire is unlikely to receive assisted area status under the new regime, and that will present a particular problem when the 143-acre site that constitutes the Ryton factory ceases to be a Peugeot plant. At that point, it will need assisted area status more than ever. I hope that she will consider whether there are ways by which we can bring the benefits of such status to the Ryton site as and when it will need it.