Rover families protest at Downing Street

The families of MG Rover employees facing redundancy have staged a protest at Downing Street in a desperate attempt to save the jobs at the troubled firm.

Around 100 women and children arrived at Downing Street today to give Tony Blair a letter calling on the Prime Minister to help save the Longbridge plant, which employs nearly 6,000 workers.

The protestors called for Mr Blair to “pull up his socks” and help re-establish talks between MG Rover and Chinese firm Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC).

Talks regarding a possible deal between the two companies broke down last week. Production at the company’s plant in Birmingham ceased on Thursday and MG Rover went into administration on Friday.

Mr Blair was launching the Labour party manifesto and was not present at Number 10 today.

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are trying to salvage a deal with SAIC but there is still no progress.

The government granted MG Rover a £6.5 million loan in order to keep the firm in business for another week and PwC had hinted that the loan might be extended until a buyer for the firm could be found, if it was thought that the business could survive.

The directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings, which owns MG Rover, also pledged £49 million in assets to help try to keep the company afloat yesterday.

Workers have been told that they will get £280 for every year of service, up to a maximum of 12 years, but this would mean that long-serving employees would receive a severance package of just over £3,300.

PwC also admitted today that MG Rover no longer had the money to reimburse warranties on their cars. This could affect around 150,000 customers who purchased their vehicle within the last two years.

(KMcA/GB)