"Instead of telling Alstom workers to stop ‘making the mistake of talking
down British manufacturing’ today, Patricia Hewitt should tell the 200
Alstom workers who have travelled down to Bournemouth in 40 year old rail
carriages for the Labour Party Conference what action the Government will
take to fight for the 1,000 jobs due to go at Alstom’s Washwood Heath,
Birmingham plant" says Michael Fabricant, Shadow Minister for Trade.

"While Conservative MEPs are fighting hard in Brussels to stop the French,
Germans and Spanish illegally subsidising their own industries at the
expense of our own, our DTI ministers sit idly by and our Secretary of
State has the cheek to spew out the same tired old mantra whenever anyone
expresses concern: ‘Don’t talk down British manufacturing’. Instead she
should be telling the workers at Alstom – and all the other manufacturing
plants in Britain under the threat of unfair closure – that the
Government will take immediate legal action to stop illegal subsidies on
continental Europe and lift the £15 billion economic burdens imposed by
Labour which are both destroying our manufacturing base. She should
intervene in Europe to speed up the investigation by the Commission in
Brussels into whether there is a breach of EU State Aid Regulations in
France including illegal support of Alstom’s French factories and halt any
further subsidies in the meantime.

"Far from pussy-footing up to Europe while condemning our own workers,
Patricia Hewitt should reassure Alstom workers with the news that the
Government will be pro-active in saving jobs. She should be British
industry’s modern day Boudica instead of a being a defeatist" Michael adds.