Business leaders welcome motor industry aid package
supporting their auto and manufacturing industries in this way. We need to do the same”.
But he said there was one gap in the plan - the pressing need for some sort of wage subsidy scheme, which he said would help keep skilled people in jobs rather than see them move on to benefits.
Paul Everitt, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders, said: "This is an important announcement that recognises the strategic contribution of the motor industry and follows action in other EU member states, the US and Japan.
"The UK motor industry is productive and globally competitive with a long-term future at the heart of the low carbon agenda. We look forward to discussing the substance of the announcement at our meeting with Lord Mandelson tomorrow."
However, the Government's package of support for Britain's car industry was dismissed as "pretty small beer" by the Tories.
Shadow Business Secretary Kenneth Clarke, making his first Commons appearance since his return to the front bench, said the proposals were not ambitious enough and were a reflection that the country could not afford to underwrite large-scale assistance for the industry.
The measures, which were outlined to the Commons by business minister Ian Pearson and which the Government insisted were not a "bail-out", are aimed at making Britain a "world leader" in the development and manufacture of green car technology.
But after hearing details of the package, Mr Clarke told MPs: "I have to say I'm slightly disappointed. I thought the Secretary of State, who I am shadowing, would produce some new ideas, some dynamite.
"He has been trailing a massive programme of support for the automotive industry - unfortunately the minister has the task of producing pretty small beer here.
"Is it the case that the Secretary of State has not produced a bail-out because the Treasury has finally won an argument inside the Government and explained to him that they can't afford the kind of support for the industry that was being trailed."
Mr Clarke also accused the Government of being "behind the curve, too late" in its plans, and said it was a "constitutional outrage" that Lord Mandelson's statement in the Upper House had been repeated in the Commons by a junior minister.
