Closure news met with fury
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THE GOVERNMENT decision to shut down Bathgate was greeted with fury by Opposition MPs despite ministerial pledges to do all they could to find a prospective buyer for the factory.
Scottish Secretary George Younger acknowledged that the decision was "extremely unpalatable" but promised to do all he could to interest inward investors in Bathgate.
Mr Younger said he knew it would be difficult to find another buyer but reminded MPs that the same had been said about the Scott Lithgow shipyard where a private sector buyer had been found in a much shorter period.
Mr Younger said he sympathised with the feelings of the workers who had staged a sit-in. "But I hope that they will accept that we shall now do all we can to find another business to use the facilities at Bathgate, and they they will not prejudice those efforts by their reaction to the announcement.
"Proposals for further large investment in the Trucks division in an effort to keep it going until the market improved was a "recipe for disaster".
During last week's emergency debate, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Shore accused the Government of giving up the battle to achieve viability in the commercial vehicle sector.
No one should doubt that there was in Bathgate "a prime and prize facility from which the revival of British Leyland Trucks could be launched."
Mr Shore said the decision to close Bathgate was the "inevitable consequence" of the decision last December not to go ahead with the Cummins BSeries engine and the MT 211.
"Tuesday's decision signals the abandonment of any serious attempt for the future to restore British Leyland as a major supplier of commercial vehicles of all kinds."
He called on the Government to carry out an independent reappraisal of the commercial vehicle market at home and overseas, to reactivate the Cummins Project, to give the go ahead for a new tight van, to defer the decision to close the C. H. Roe bus works (see p14) in Leeds and to abandon the "damaging" proposal to privatise Jaguar Cars.
The Commons exchanges were at their angriest when Trade and Industry Secretary Norman Tebbit announced the closure decision. He particularly annoyed Labour MPs when he accused them of wanting to create a "lorry park" similar to the Common market wine lake and butter mountains.