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Manufacturing and Employment

It is good to see that you are the Chairman of the day, Mr. Fraser, and may I add that I am disappointed that you will be retiring? We are pleased to be having this important debate. Manufacturing is important to our economy and to the UK, and Governments past and present have not given it their true support in the way that I would have liked. There is support, but we must recognise the importance of manufacturing. I should like to talk about what is being done in the automotive sector. We can see the importance of the subject by the fact that so many Members from all sides of the House have taken the trouble to turn up at 9.30 am—I say that for the benefit of those outside who perhaps do not realise that politicians start that little bit earlier than they see on television. The debate is about what is happening and some of the big issues. Only yesterday, we had the devastating news of LDV vans when only a fortnight ago we thought that there was great hope for the company. There was talk of a Malaysian company and the Government giving £5 million to tide it over, and we thought that everything was in place to ensure that LDV manufacturing in the UK could continue. Unfortunately, what we thought was in place fell apart because of the banks, which did not put the money in. We have potentially lost 850 jobs in LDV, and probably 4,000 from the supply chain for LDV. The situation has an impact not only on Birmingham, but on other parts of the country in that supply chain. All the parts for LDV vans go through Multipart, which is a huge logistics supply chain company based in Chorley. It is an excellent company and it has the contract for LDV vans. There is a knock-on effect for each constituency. Team Leyland International is also based in Chorley. It is the original exporter and continues to export LDV vans—the company gets LDV vans into places such as Nepal for the British Army. The effect is much greater than people see in the headlines of a newspaper or regional programme. We must consider the depth of the impact that the LDV vans situation will have on the economy and on people's livelihoods and jobs. I would have thought that it is now time for the Government to step in and rescue LDV vans. It seems pretty obscene to me that we can see the Mercedes-Benz badge on police van after police van parked outside in the square. That is a shame and a tragedy. Do we think that we will see a British-built van in Germany? Not on your nelly! We will also not see them in Italy, France or Spain. Why do we see that here? What playing field do those countries play on that we do not? We should be ensuring that the police want to buy British to support British taxpayers and British jobs. The same goes for the ambulance service, which uses Renault or Mercedes vehicles, and the Highways Agency, which uses Mitsubishi vehicles, which are not even built in Europe. There is something seriously wrong, is there not? Our procurement is a nonsense. On the one hand, we spend millions saying how good British industry is and, "Come and buy from us," yet at the same time, our Government do not back our jobs. What is going wrong? Why spend millions promoting British manufacturing and then not buy the products? The best advert for British products is to be seen using them. What car will the Minister ride home in tonight? Is it British built? Has it got a British component? I have not checked, but I suspect that it is a Prius or a Honda.