A Bury councillor has used a thumping re-election victory to attack UKIP policies and Chancellor George Osborne’s plans for economic recovery.
Sedgely Labour councillor Alan Quinn used his comfortable victory – which saw him gain 57.6% of the vote – to ask why UKIP, if they really stand for UK independence, do not worry about the manufacturing sector like he does.
Councillor Quinn told MM: “The state of the employment market is very unstable, where you’ve got zero-hours contracts, hire and fire – very few steady jobs, and part of that is to do with why we’ve let manufacturing go.
“We’ve seen British Aerospace go at Chadderton. We’ve seen Mather and Platt go. We’ve seen two Ferrantis go. And Radcliffe used to be a hive of engineering shops.
“A lot of these places employed people. They did a good day’s work and I think we do need, as a country, to look at where we procure goods from.”
Councillor Quinn made these comments after calling UKIP a ‘protest form with only two policies’.
Mr Quinn added that the people of Britain had found in UKIP a way of showing their dissatisfaction with the current mainstream parties.
While Ukip hold strong views about leaving Europe and closing our borders, Labour’s Quinn believes that standing up for British manufacturing is more important.
He said: “Why are all our police cars made in Korea? Or Germany? Why are our ambulances Mercedes and Fiats? Why can’t we purchase them in this country?
“Why are all the turbines we place out to sea made in Germany and Denmark – why don’t we make them?”
Councillor Quinn gave many examples of British firms being taken over by international companies – such as Kraft taking over Cadbury’s, or Volkswagen taking over Bentley – and said that this often results in factory closures.
He approved of a national interest test that would try to stop these acquisitions.
He said: “Britain has got to be open for business. We can’t have asset-strippers coming in and taking over national institutions.”
He called for long-term stability and praised the German model, where they have lots of family owned SMEs (small and medium enterprises) supplying larger companies.
He expressed concern at how little Britain still manufactures.
As the re-instated councillor for Sedgley, he said he would continue his work in the council and keep standing up for British workers.
He said: “I do ask where things are procured from at council meetings. I campaigned for a factory in Wigan that makes Bulldog Tools. That was asset-stripped – giving away the production to Indonesia.”
The government should do more to intervene when they see these deals going through, Mr Quinn added.
Sometimes companies make the wrong decisions and it can have huge consequences for the economy and for skilled workers trying to feed their families and make ends meet.
Mr Quinn has experience in this field and worked at BAE Systems for many years.
“I do lobby Labour MPs on behalf of the aerospace industry. I’ve been lobbying political parties on the aerospace industry for 28 years.”
Mr Quinn was skeptical of the current government’s commitment to keeping British manufacturing and protecting British jobs.
“George Osbourne has said he’ll re-balance the economy. I’ll tell you what’s happened. We have sent £450m of Royal Navy tankers to Korea to be made; we’ve sent £1bn of helicopters to Philadelphia to be made, when they could have been made in Somerset.
“The deeds don’t match the words.”
