MPs join the campaign to protect Cadbury jobs

Dec 17 2009 By Jonathan Walker

Labour backbenchers have warned the Government they will step up demands for action to prevent a foreign buyer axing jobs at Cadbury, if Ministers fail to intervene.

Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson have issued a series of strong warnings to any potential buyer who tries to “asset strip” the Birmingham-based chocolate maker.

But they have also insisted there is nothing they can do to prevent a sale.

Jim Cunningham (Lab, Coventry South), Chair of the West Midlands Parliamentary Labour Party, warned that this was not enough, as he met a delegation from trade union Unite this week.

He said: “Depending on what the Government does, we will take the campaign forward.

“Lord Mandelson has met Unite, but we now want to speak to him ourselves. Our response will depend on what he has to say.”

A possible course of action would be to pressure ministers publicly by raising the issue repeatedly in the House of Commons, he said.

A delegation of seven Unite shop stewards representing workers from Cadbury plants in Dublin, Herefordshire and Somerset as well as Birmingham held a meeting with Lord Mandelson in his Whitehall offices yesterday.

As well as presenting Lord Mandelson with a box of Cadbury Fruit and Nut bars, they demanded reforms to takeover regulations making it harder for foreign buyers to acquire British firms.

In a statement released after the meeting, The Department for Business said Lord Mandelson had made it clear he was acutely aware of the strength of feelings generated by the takeover bid.

He said Cadbury was a major UK company and it was important that any buyer respect the company’s heritage and workforce.

However, the Business Secretary had stressed that he had no statutory power to intervene in this case.

More generally Lord Mandelson also told the union representatives he would continue to take a very close interest in whether shareholders played a full part in corporate governance, and whether they took a long term view of their responsibilities as shareholders.

It came as the war of words between Cadbury and US food giant Kraft continued.

Kraft has launched a £10 billion hostile takeover bid, and shareholders have until January 5 to decide how to response. But Cadbury, which employs 6,200 staff, has dismissed the offer as “derisory”.

Unite, which fears British jobs could be axed if Kraft is successful, points out that the takeover bid is funded partly by state-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

RBS, which is 84 per cent owned by taxpayers, is one of nine banks lending Kraft up to £5.5 billion in total.