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Lord Mandelson today failed to reassure up to 5,000 Vauxhall workers their jobs are safe.
With the British car maker's American parent company General Motors collapsing into what is the world's largest industrial bankruptcy, the Business Secretary came under increasing pressure to intervene to save jobs at Luton and at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside.
But Lord Mandelson was today making no pledges. “I understand the fears and uncertainty of Vauxhall's workforce but I am afraid we have to be patient,” he said.
Vauxhall is in danger of closure in Britain because of the collapse of GM, once an icon of US industrial might and one of the world's great car makers.
GM, which today filed for bankruptcy protection in the US courts, is already in the process of selling its European operations including Vauxhall.
It has agreed a sale to the Canadian autoparts group Magna, backed by Russian interests including Oleg Deripaska, the oligarch who has had close links with Lord Mandelson and owns LDV van maker, which was bailed out by the UK Government. However while GM Europe's sell-off appears to have secured manufacturing jobs for Opel in Germany there has been no news for Vauxhall staff.
Vauxhall workers' leader Tony Woodley, of the Unite union, said: “We need Mr Mandelson to bat strongly to make sure that Luton and Ellesmere Port have a long-term future.”
Lord Mandelson countered that union leaders were creating “needless fears” among Vauxhall workers.
Reader views (5)
There is something very spooky about Meddlesum.
If he had half a brain he could get a job as a road sweeper.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe/Lancaster
Mandy is only interested in himself. He is a nightmare to control from a political and bureaucratic perspective, expecting the world to be at his feet. If the car industry does not further his ambitions, he will have no interest in it whatsoever.
- Coylum, vancouver, Canada
He is a waste of space, the sooner he goes the better
- Mike, London England
Was Mandy not on a yatch with the new owners of Vauxhall?
Nudge nudge wink wink ManDy
- Ge, Cornwall
And what is the government doing?? Busy doing fraud here and there for their Nu Labor selves! Forgetting the economy...
- Georgie, Islington, London
