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Car Manufacturing

I cannot disagree with my right hon. Friend. He is spot on. In fact, I shall come to that very point later in a little more detail. The UK has some of the most profitable car plants in Europe, none more so than Vauxhall. However, when costs had to be cut, the company turned to UK plants and UK workers, because it was the easiest and cheapest place to sack people. That is always a problem. There are many more examples of shifts in production, such as at Ford and Peugeot. People are talking about new cars with great British brand names, such as the small Rolls-Royce and the SUV Mini, being built abroad. Aston Martin's new four-seater saloon car, is to be built abroad. Ford made many promises when it closed its last own-badge car plant at Dagenham. I was a member of the Trade and Industry Committee that took evidence from Ford. It said that we should not worry and that although they might not have Ford badges, the company still owned Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin. Those are great brand names and Ford said that it would continue to manufacture them in the UK. Aston Martin is already under foreign ownership and Jaguar and Land Rover are up for sale. That is the difference; they are in foreign hands. Ford will not have a car assembly plant in the UK if it sells to Tata, yet Ford sells more cars in the UK than anywhere else in Europe. The company does very well out of the UK.