Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Jewkes has spoken out against remarks made by Andrew Miller MP who criticised the Lib Dem Treasury Spokesman Vince Cable MP. Vince Cable is a very respected national politician who predicted the economic calamity that has overtaken our country; suggested the steps the government should follow to get us out of this mess and after dawdling, the government is now following his advice. Now Vince is stating that there are too many car manufacturing plants around the world and all cannot survive. ‘Vince is absolutely right’ claims Elizabeth. ‘Perhaps we should look at what he actually said: ‘The car industry globally has too much capacity. There isn't enough demand for its products and there is unlikely to be any time soon’. ‘Of course the Government cannot simply turn its back on British car workers. Money will have to be found to help them adjust and retrain. But signing cheques for every well-known firm in trouble would be a disaster’. Vince has also expressed his concern at the Magna bid for Vauxhalls, especially at the involvement of Oleg Deripaska the Russian billionaire. For the past two years, Deripaska has been running the van business LDV until it went into administration with the loss of 850 jobs. ‘I am astonished that Andrew Miller is happy for him to be involved in running Vauxhalls’ says Elizabeth Jewkes. Vince is less than happy. ‘Help for new technology for the whole UK car industry to get greener would make far more sense than a dodgy deal with Deripaska’ he says. ‘I want the Ellesmere plant to stay open and it deserves to be given help to become competitive, not a short term crutch which will just put off the inevitable for a year or two as has happened to LDV. Industry moves on’ added Mrs. Jewkes ‘Instead of looking at the past we need to look to the future’. The government must invest in jobs with a future and ensure that the workforce are offered retraining opportunities. This government has already failed workers made redundant by Vauxhalls’. Mrs. Jewkes’ husband took voluntary redundancy in 2006 having worked for Vauxhall for 19 years. ‘I assumed he would be offered help to retrain, but he was not offered any help at all. It was disgraceful’ she says. ‘I can’t help thinking that 100 years ago, Mr Miller would be complaining that the horse & carriage business was struggling and should be propped up by the government just to keep people in jobs. We need keep our focus on what’s important – that Vauxhall workers continue to have jobs. A bailout at any price risks becoming a handout for a Russian billonaire’. Contact: Lizzie Jewkes