Business
Labour must step up to help JLR supply chain jobs, says Unite
Ed Jamesin Solihull and
Chloe HughesWest Midlands
Jason RichardsA union has said the Labour Party needs to “step up” and help workers from supply-chain firms affected by the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) shutdown following a cyber-attack.
The car-maker’s production lines have been at a standstill for more than a fortnight, with concerns growing some companies reliant on the brand’s business could go bust without support.
Jason Richards, Unite’s regional officer for the West Midlands, said thousands or tens of thousands of people could be laid off if there was no positive news from JLR, which has plants in Wolverhampton, Solihull and Merseyside.
Minister for Industry Chris McDonald said JLR was taking the lead on support for its own supply chain.
He said cyber experts continued to support JLR to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
“Yesterday I met West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker to discuss the effect the shutdown at Jaguar Land Rover is having on the region, and we agreed to keep in close touch while the company works to get production up and running again,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said they held an extraordinary meeting of their automotive components section on Friday, which was attended by officials from the Department for Business and Trade.
“This allowed us to listen to suppliers directly and understand the challenges and concerns they are facing,” the two organisations said in a joint statement.
In response, JLR said it welcomed the meeting, and said it was an important move to identify challenges that businesses were facing following the cyber attack.
Reuters“I don’t want to be pessimistic, and I don’t want to sensationalise this, but I really am concerned about the issue we find ourselves in,” said Mr Richards.
“Members within the automotive supply chain… some employers are laying off with pay, some employers are laying off on reduced pay, some employers are introducing interim banked hours agreements… but some are laying off without pay.
“They’ll get the statutory award of £39 a day for five days, and then after the five days they get zero and they’re being signposted to universal credit,” he told BBC Radio WM.
Mr Richards suggested that a furlough-type scheme could be introduced by the government, but added that he understood there was not a “magic money tree”.
“We’re having very little feedback from government – the Labour Party was farmed by the trade union movement… it’s time for the Labour Party to step up.”
ReutersUmesh Samani, chairman of the Independent Motor Dealers Association, based in Stoke-on-Trent, which has more than 1,000 members, said most independent dealers were saying they were not currently badly affected.
However he said the lack of clarity around when operations at JLR could begin again was an issue.
“The bigger companies probably can ride the storm a little bit longer but the smaller ones in the supply chain… there’s no way they can continue,” he said.
He said he agreed the government needed to step in.
“They’ve got to do something – otherwise there’s going to be so many small businesses going bust, so they’ve got to try and help alleviate the situation,” Mr Samani said.
‘Do not dither and delay’
Conservative MP for Meriden and Solihull East, Saqib Bhatti, was one of those who wrote to Chancellor Rachel Reeves – he told the BBC government support needed to be “proactive and robust”.
“I’ve asked for a short-term loan scheme where the government convenes all the banks, and they ask the banks to come up with a solution on this,” he said.
“What I want is for the government to get those banks in a room to come up with a special loan facility; they will absolutely have the templates to do that.”
He also asked for insurers to deal with claims quickly.
“Do not dither and delay; there are jobs at stake here, there are businesses at stake here. We need real action,” he said.
“Anyone you speak to will recognise that Jaguar Land Rover and our automotive sector is in our DNA as West Midlanders.
“This is really, really important, and if the supply chain goes, this could have a huge amount of ramifications – because once people leave the workforce, it’s really hard to get them back.”
Two ads promoting British beef and milk have been banned after television presenter and environmental campaigner Chris Packham complained that they misled consumers about the products’ carbon footprints.
Both ads for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s (AHDB) Let’s Eat Balanced campaign used the carbon footprint of British beef and milk to promote the products, firstly stating: “British beef not only tastes great, but has a carbon footprint that’s half the global average*.”
The asterisk linked to text that stated: “Full lifecycle emissions of CO2 eq (carbon dioxide equivalent) per kg of beef.”
The ad for milk stated: “British milk not only tastes good, but is also produced to world-class standards, and has a carbon footprint a third lower than the global average.”
Packham complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ads, and specifically the carbon footprint claims, were misleading as they did not reflect the full environmental impact of British meat and dairy.
The AHDB said the ads’ mention of carbon emissions would be understood in relation to the environmental impact of beef and milk that occurred between the “cradle-to-retail” stages.
But the ASA said the average consumer “being reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect” would understand the claims to apply beyond the retail stage and include actions such as cooking and wastage.
The ASA said: “While we acknowledged the potential difficulties in producing post-retail emissions data, the claims in the ads suggested those emissions were included and we therefore expected the evidence provided to also include them.
“We therefore concluded that the evidence presented was insufficient to support the full life-cycle claims in the ads, which was how the average consumer was likely to interpret them.
“We reminded AHDB that environmental claims should be based on the full life cycle unless the ad stated otherwise.”
AHDB’s director of communications and market development, Will Jackson, said: “Let’s Eat Balanced is doing what it was designed to do, providing clear, factual, evidence-led information about British food, nutrition and farming standards.
“Since the investigation began, we have conducted independent consumer research which found that the majority of respondents interpreted these adverts as relating to the production phase only, from farm to retail.
“This research provides important insight into consumer understanding and supports our belief that consumers were not misled by the information we shared in these two specific adverts.”
BENGALURU: India’s Gen Z workforce is embracing what experts describe as “portfolio careers” – balancing multiple professional identities and income streams simultaneously. New research from LinkedIn shows that 75% of Gen Z entrepreneurs in India now manage multiple income streams, significantly higher than the 62% among Gen X entrepreneurs. The findings point to a growing preference among younger professionals for flexibility, autonomy and diversified sources of income. “We’re also seeing the rise of the ‘portfolio era’, with more professionals creating multiple income streams and redefining what a career can look like. This shift is making entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before,” said LinkedIn India country manager Kumaresh Pattabiraman.Rather than depending on a single full-time role, many professionals are simultaneously building businesses, freelancing, consulting, creating online content and monetising specialised skills through digital platforms. The trend comes amid a broader rise in entrepreneurial activity in India. LinkedIn recorded a 104% year-on-year increase in members adding “Founder” to their profiles – the highest growth among all global markets.AI is also emerging as a major enabler of this shift. The report found that 85% of Gen Z entrepreneurs consider AI and digital tools important to their business operations.
Sam Altman said Elon Musk tried many times for total control of OpenAI, which he’s now suing.
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