YEOVIL NEWS: Foolish decisions made GKN closure inevitable says former Yeovil MP

FORMER Yeovil MP Paddy Ashdown has said the Government must do everything it can to safeguard the town's helicopter manufacturing business following the news that the GKN factory will close next year.

Lord Ashdown has spoken of his disappointment following the announcement on Thursday (November 17, 2016) afternoon that the aerospace factory will shut at the end of 2017 with the potential loss of 230 jobs after the company decided that it was no longer sustainable due to a change in practice by the Leonardo (better known as Westlands) firm.

And the former Liberal Democrat leader has slammed the Government for a number of “foolish decisions” which has put question marks against the helicopter manufacturing industry in Yeovil.

“Even if this news was expected by many, it is sad news and bad news for Yeovil and those affected especially just before Christmas,” he said.

“My heart goes out to them and their families. This is the inevitable consequence of the foolish decisions by this Government to give the recent Apache order to the United States without even a competitive tender.”

Lord Ashdown added: “It is vital now for the Yeovil site and for our communities future prosperity that the Government does two things: firstly uses the tooling at GKN, which they own, as leverage to insist that this work stays on the Yeovil site and is not allowed to be exported to Italy or anywhere else.

“Secondly to make it explicitly clear in the forthcoming policy paper on Britain’s industrial strategy that the Government sees Yeovil’s capability to design and construct helicopters on the integrated site in Yeovil as an essential part of the nation’s industrial base.”

“I will continue to lobby pressure the government to do this, along with the local unions and I hope Yeovil’s Member of Parliament, if he is prepared to work with us.” 

Tags:
News.