The former chairman of MG Rover, John Towers, has blamed “negative press briefings” by the UK government’s department of trade and industry (DTI) for the final collapse of the car maker a year ago, according to a newspaper report.
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The Daily Telegraph said Towers claimed, in a submission to the government trade and industry committee investigating why MG Rover went bust costing 6,100 jobs, that none of the none of the DTI officials sent to China to negotiate a rescue deal for the car maker with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation spoke the local language. He also reportedly queried why the extent of the DTI’s contingency plan was leaked to the press
The paper added that Towers said a “series of negative press briefings were given by DTI officials over the weekend of the 2/3 April” 2005 and asked: “What was the purpose of these briefings, given that they led directly to the cessation of component supplies to MG Rover from 4 April?
“Did those who authorised the briefings realise that negotiations were still taking place in Shanghai and that the effects of those briefings would inevitably undermine that process?”
The Daily Telegraph said Towers was also heavily critical of the DTI for not telling him that it was quietly developing a contingency plan in case MG Rover collapsed in 2004.
A DTI spokesman told the paper: “MG Rover went bust when they did because of Shanghai Automotive’s decision not to go ahead with the deal.”
She reportedly added that an interpreter accompanied the officials on the trip to Shanghai. “And even the president of Shanghai Automotive spoke good English.”
The paper noted that, in other submissions, former trade and industry secretary [minister] Stephen Byers admitted that he helped to “facilitate discussions” between BMW and Phoenix in 2000.
The Daily Telegraph said that the committee’s chairman warned that a full investigation of the roles played by government ministers in the affair might not happen unless he received more evidence.
