Andy Burnham has been accused of “sacrificing British jobs” after Jaguar Land Rover announced plans to axe around 4,000 positions, with the majority of the cuts expected to hit its UK operations.
The jobs bloodbath will pile further pressure on the Prime Minister’s Government as it attempts to revive Britain’s industrial heartlands while simultaneously imposing increasingly ambitious targets for the switch to electric vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover employs about 34,000 people across its British operations, including major sites in the West Midlands and Merseyside.
The Conservatives blamed the Government’s green policies and soaring industrial energy costs, highlighting rules that will outlaw the sale of new fully petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and hybrids from 2035.
Manufacturers are already required to ensure that 33 per cent of new car sales are electric vehicles under the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate.
But the industry has struggled to persuade motorists to make the switch, leaving manufacturers facing mounting pressure to meet targets in a market where demand for electric cars remains challenging.
Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Conservatives, business and the unions are clear – the ZEV mandate and punishing energy costs are crippling the British automotive industry. But Labour are not listening.
“Labour ministers refuse to review a mandate that fines manufacturers for failing to sell cars British families do not want to buy, all while loading green levies onto the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world and sending taxpayers’ money to foreign manufacturers to produce electric cars abroad.
Every pound added to a factory’s energy and tax bill is a pound that could have been used to keep British workers in high-value jobs.
“The next Conservative government will scrap the ZEV Mandate and deliver our Cheap Power Plan to bring industrial energy costs down. Labour would sooner sacrifice British jobs than admit their green dogma has failed.”
The Conservative attack comes as JLR continues to recover from a devastating five-week shutdown last year after a cyberattack blamed on Russia.
In June, the company announced plans to cut about £1.7billion in costs over the coming years as part of its recovery effort.
JLR’s chief executive PB Balaji said the company was confronting a combination of technological upheaval, fierce competition and geopolitical uncertainty.
“The automotive industry faces significant challenges, with technological change amidst intense competition and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty.
“Over the next 12 months, we will launch five new products, continue to leverage the strength of our brands and renew our focus on North America, among other markets, to help us deliver double-digit revenue growth.
“At the same time, we are reducing organisational complexity and targeting £1.7billion of savings to lower our break-even point towards 300,000 vehicles and become fitter to compete in a rapidly evolving market.
“These actions will support continued investment of £15-18billion over the next five years in electrification, digital technologies, advanced manufacturing and enhanced customer experiences.
“As part of this transformation, we will reduce our global workforce by around 4,000 roles over the next two years. We recognise this will be difficult news for colleagues affected.”
The scale of the cuts has also prompted anger from Unite, which warned that the British automotive industry had been weakened by years of under-investment and rising costs.
Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said: “Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments.
“Years of under-investment, unsustainable ZEV mandates and high industrial energy costs are crippling the industry. There must be further action.”
The Government has already ruled out a bailout for JLR after reports of the planned job losses emerged over the weekend.
Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, has spoken to Mr Balaji and is due to meet the company’s leadership team on Tuesday, with Ms Graham also expected to attend.
The announcement represents an especially awkward moment for Mr Burnham and Chancellor John Healey, whose Government has made economic growth and the revival of Britain’s regions central political priorities.
Liam Byrne, the Labour chairman of the Commons Business Committee, said the planned redundancies “underline the challenge” facing ministers.
He said: “News of up to 4,000 redundancies at JLR is a body blow for workers, families and communities across the West Midlands. Whether or not these redundancies are voluntary, we now need urgent assurances that maximum support will be deployed to help everyone affected find new work.
“But the troubles at JLR underline the challenge facing the Government’s re-industrialisation drive. Britain is preparing to spend billions more on defence, infrastructure and new technology. But British business needs cheaper energy and government orders, not at some distant point in the future, but now, now, now.”
Mr Byrne’s committee is due to question Blair McDougall, the newly appointed minister for re-industrialisation, on Tuesday.
The Government announced last month that it would consider watering down laws forcing motorists to switch to electric cars after manufacturers warned that thousands of jobs were at risk.
For Mr Burnham, however, the JLR announcement creates an immediate political test: whether the Government can claim to be rebuilding Britain’s industrial base while one of the country’s most important carmakers prepares to eliminate thousands of jobs.
The cuts threaten to deliver a particularly severe blow to the West Midlands, where JLR remains one of the region’s most prominent employers and where the Government has promised that its industrial strategy will deliver higher-value jobs and investment.
The clash over JLR therefore goes far beyond one company’s restructuring.
It has become a test of whether Britain’s drive towards net zero can be reconciled with the survival of the manufacturing jobs that successive governments have promised to protect.
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