The British government’s business secretary Peter Mandelson has been involved in the negotiations over Opel’s future, holding talks with the head of GM and GM Europe in an effort to ensure that any deal protects two GM-owned plants in Britain, the Financial Times reported.
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News agency AFP said Britain had “not ruled out” financial help to save the Vauxhall factories in the country. Mandelson reportedly had said Britain had “not ruled out making a financial contribution” to help save Vauxhall, which employs 5,000 people at its two main plants here.
The Financial Times said Britain was lobbying hard to prevent the German government, which faces federal elections this year, yielding to domestic pressure to protect jobs there at the expense of British workers.
“We’re pedalling hard to get a commercial solution and not an overtly political one,” the FT quoted an unnamed senior government insider as saying.
Mandelson has also met representatives from Fiat and Magna, which are competing for a stake in GM Europe, reports said.
Ahead of the German government’s announcement of its preferred bidder for GM Europe, Britain’s biggest union has warned that unless the UK government backed GM’s UK plants, thousands of jobs would be lost and the UK’s manufacturing capability left “hamstrung”.
“The German government has offered billions of euros of state loan guarantees to the bidders. So far there has been no comparable support from the UK government,” Unite said in a statement.
Joint general secretary, Derek Simpson said: “It’s no good providing billions to the banks but buttons for manufacturing. Thousands of jobs are at stake at Luton and Ellesmere Port. Once lost they won’t return, our manufacturing capability and the UK’s R&D base will be left hamstrung.
“Lord Mandelson claims the government is prepared but so far there has only been talk and no action.
“This is crunch time. Its time for the UK government to be decisive and do everything humanly possible to protect Britain’s manufacturing base.”
