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Thameslink

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Patrick Hall) on securing this debate. I acknowledge—no, more than acknowledge—the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Laura Moffatt) about awarding the contract to Bombardier, which is a UK-based company. It is clear from the debate that some hon. Members in the Chamber have far more knowledge about the ins and outs and the nuts and bolts of the Thameslink route than I do. My expertise, if I have any, comes from my home city of Derby. I want briefly to reinforce the points that I made in my intervention. Although Bombardier in Derby has a reasonable amount of work, it will be disastrous if the company fails to win the Thameslink contract, because it would effectively run out of work over the next couple of years. As a result of what is happening in the world economy, the UK wants to rebuild its industry, to get people back into work and to sustain them in work.