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From: Derby Telegraph
Labour MPs last night called for the Government to hand over control of plans to buy £1 billion worth of trains to another organisation.
Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle made the demand while giving her speech to her party's annual conference in Liverpool.
She argued that the Government had shown it could not be trusted to ensure British firms like Derby trainmaker Bombardier had a fair chance of winning state contracts.
Her comments came a day after Labour gave an award to campaigners from Derby, who are fighting to get the Government to change its decision to hand a £1.4 billion Thameslink contract to German firm Siemens, instead of Bombardier.
After the move was taken, the Litchurch Lane firm announced it would review its UK operations, raising the prospect of 1,400 job losses.
Now the Government is drawing up plans for its next big train order, Crossrail, valued at about £1 billion.
Ms Eagle told conference delegates: "I say to (Transport Secretary) Philip Hammond there is no faith that your department will give British manufacturing a fair chance. So hand over responsibility for ordering the new Crossrail trains to Transport for London, which thanks to Labour has a track record of buying British."
Ms Eagle pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to support business when he took his Cabinet to Derby, shortly before naming Siemens as the preferred bidder for Thameslink.
Ministers have consistently said the way the tender for Thameslink was designed by the previous Labour administration meant they could only have given the contract to Siemens. They claim it would have been breaking EU law to do otherwise.
Ms Eagle called that "a lie" and said the Government could have scrapped the tender process and started again with one that gave the Derby firm a better chance of winning. She urged campaigners to keep fighting to get the Government to change its mind.
Last night ministers were defiant. Mr Hammond warned the consequences of further delaying Thameslink would be too severe for taxpayers to bear and said: "The project is already 16 years behind schedule in its original iteration it was known as Thameslink 2000. It has already had very large amounts of capital investment sunk into it," he said.
He argued that 3,000 construction jobs depending on the project moving forward could be put at risk if it was delayed.
On the Crossrail issue, a Government spokesman pointed out that it was Labour that had set up Crossrail Ltd an arms-length body to deliver the scheme, overseen by the Government and Transport for London. He said: "Is Labour seriously saying taxpayers in the rest of the country, outside London, should have no control over the billions of pounds they are putting into Crossrail?"
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It really beggars belief what Labour will do these days. Not only did they make TfL buy British, but they also award the people protesting about a loss of work in Derby, that the partys own ineptitude in developing the procurement process caused in the first place.
Maria Eagle would of course have backed the Government if they had scrapped the procurement process to give Bombardier a chance.
The above article also once again fails to mention that Bombardier were already considering up to 1200 job losses regardless of the Thameslink deal.
Labour MPs last night called for the Government to hand over control of plans to buy £1 billion worth of trains to another organisation.
Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle made the demand while giving her speech to her party's annual conference in Liverpool.
She argued that the Government had shown it could not be trusted to ensure British firms like Derby trainmaker Bombardier had a fair chance of winning state contracts.
Her comments came a day after Labour gave an award to campaigners from Derby, who are fighting to get the Government to change its decision to hand a £1.4 billion Thameslink contract to German firm Siemens, instead of Bombardier.
After the move was taken, the Litchurch Lane firm announced it would review its UK operations, raising the prospect of 1,400 job losses.
Now the Government is drawing up plans for its next big train order, Crossrail, valued at about £1 billion.
Ms Eagle told conference delegates: "I say to (Transport Secretary) Philip Hammond there is no faith that your department will give British manufacturing a fair chance. So hand over responsibility for ordering the new Crossrail trains to Transport for London, which thanks to Labour has a track record of buying British."
Ms Eagle pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to support business when he took his Cabinet to Derby, shortly before naming Siemens as the preferred bidder for Thameslink.
Ministers have consistently said the way the tender for Thameslink was designed by the previous Labour administration meant they could only have given the contract to Siemens. They claim it would have been breaking EU law to do otherwise.
Ms Eagle called that "a lie" and said the Government could have scrapped the tender process and started again with one that gave the Derby firm a better chance of winning. She urged campaigners to keep fighting to get the Government to change its mind.
Last night ministers were defiant. Mr Hammond warned the consequences of further delaying Thameslink would be too severe for taxpayers to bear and said: "The project is already 16 years behind schedule in its original iteration it was known as Thameslink 2000. It has already had very large amounts of capital investment sunk into it," he said.
He argued that 3,000 construction jobs depending on the project moving forward could be put at risk if it was delayed.
On the Crossrail issue, a Government spokesman pointed out that it was Labour that had set up Crossrail Ltd an arms-length body to deliver the scheme, overseen by the Government and Transport for London. He said: "Is Labour seriously saying taxpayers in the rest of the country, outside London, should have no control over the billions of pounds they are putting into Crossrail?"
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It really beggars belief what Labour will do these days. Not only did they make TfL buy British, but they also award the people protesting about a loss of work in Derby, that the partys own ineptitude in developing the procurement process caused in the first place.
Maria Eagle would of course have backed the Government if they had scrapped the procurement process to give Bombardier a chance.
The above article also once again fails to mention that Bombardier were already considering up to 1200 job losses regardless of the Thameslink deal.
