By Alan Jones, Industrial Correspondent, PA News
Embattled Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers was given a vote of
confidence by the Prime Minister today after surviving a two-hour grilling by
MPs over his role in the Rover car crisis.
Tony Blair defended Mr Byers during angry exchanges in the Commons with Tory
leader William Hague, who called for the appointment of a new Trade
Secretary.
Challenged to back Mr Byers, the Prime Minister replied: "Of course I do"
before dismissing Mr Hague's comments as "nonsense".
Mr Byers was not present to witness the bitter row, but earlier he faced two
hours of questioning by the cross-party Trade and Industry Select Committee.
He made it clear that the Government was never given the opportunity to try
to save Rover from being broken up because German owner BMW gave no hint of
its shock decision.
He fended off Tory MPs by arguing that the German firm was playing its cards
"very close to its chest" in the months before deciding to sell its
loss-making subsidiary.
Mr Byers took the rare step of publishing details of private conversations he
had with BMW and Rover bosses to show that the German company never raised
the prospect of a sale until days before it was approved.
Rover chairman Walter Samann outlined a four-point plan for stemming mounting
losses of £2 million a day when he met Mr Byers on March 10 - just six days
before the BMW board voted to sell Rover.
The plan explained to Mr Byers in his London office made no mention of the
proposal to break up Rover, sell the Longbridge factory in Birmingham to
venture capitalists Alchemy and sell Land Rover to rival Ford.
"We were not given information that BMW were considering breaking up Rover
and selling Longbridge," Mr Byers told the cross-party committee.
BMW was giving the impression that it was "business at usual" at Rover
despite the losses and that it was continuing with planned investment at
Longbridge.
Mr Byers, sitting alone in front of the MPs, calmly sipped sparkling water as
he stuck to his version of what led to the sell-off decision, which now
threatens thousands of jobs across the country, especially the West Midlands.
Mr Byers said he had no recollection that Prof Samann had said on the March
10 meeting that the clock was standing at "five minutes to 12", later
interpreted as a clear warning that drastic action was about to be taken.
John Butterfill (Con Bournemouth West), one of three Tory MPs on the
committee who continually pressed the minister on whether he should have
known of the impending crisis, said: "There was a pretty strong hint that
there were major structural difficulties."
Mr Byers replied: "If you can somehow jump from a very clear commitment being
given by the head of Rover by this four-point plan, that that equates to what
was announced on the 16th, I have great difficulty in following that line of
reasoning.
"We were never given an opportunity to save Longbridge, to save Rover as a
group in the UK."
The DTI could have talked to BMW about possible alternatives if it had known
in advance that BMW was planning to sell Rover, the MPs were told.
The task force now in place could have been set up earlier and early action
taken on retraining workers and helping them look for other jobs.
"We would have been able to put in place the mechanism for dealing with it."
"BMW has dealt with this situation in an unusual way," said Mr Byers, noting
that the German firm was quite a "closed" company, partly owned by a single
family.
Lindsay Hoyle (Lab Chorley) said BMW's reputation was now in "tatters" and
the German firm should have some responsibility for helping the Rover
workers.
He suggested that the planned R30 model, which was to be built at Longbridge,
could still be manufactured in the UK.
Mr Byers said: "BMW recognises they need to make a gesture to rebuild their
relationship with the UK car-buying public. They could take a number of
steps. It could be that allowing the R30 to be built in Britain could be a
suitable gesture.
"We are in discussion with BMW about the sort of steps they can take."
The impact on Rover sales of the break-up will be revealed in new car
purchase figures due to be published tomorrow.
Meanwhile, union officials from Rover car plants across the country will
lobby MPs at Westminster tomorrow as part of their campaign to try to keep
the Rover group together.
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