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Car Manufacturing

I add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle). I requested this debate on 28 June following the announcement of the proposed sell-off of Jaguar and Land Rover. To misquote Mark Twain, the report of the car industry's death in Britain is somewhat premature, and I am fed up with the nay-sayers who say that the industry is on its knees. However, there is a bad side with 6,000 jobs lost at Land Rover at Longbridge, and 2,300 lost at Peugeot Citroen just round the corner from Solihull at Ryton. Vauxhall has had job losses at Ellesmere Port; Ford has had £6 billion of losses worldwide, and is selling the classic marques of Jaguar and Land Rover to try to balance its books. The hon. Members for Chorley and for Dagenham (Jon Cruddas) bemoan the fact that it is cheaper to close a factory in the United Kingdom than in other parts of Europe, but the UK is also a more attractive place in which to set up a car factory, because of our flexible working practices.