MP says team will help Lotus workers find new jobs

Labour MP Ben Goldsborough said the news was a "punch in the stomach" for workers

An MP has said his team will work "full blast" to find every person made redundant by Lotus a new job.

On Thursday, the sports car manufacturer said it would cut 550 jobs from its UK headquarters at Hethel near Wymondham in Norfolk.

Lotus said the factory would remain the home of its sports car and engineering consulting operations.

Labour MP for South Norfolk, Ben Goldsborough, said he had worked "tirelessly" to help protect the business and was optimistic that "highly-skilled" staff would find jobs elsewhere.

"I know what this means to people, I know how this feels, this is a punch in the stomach for every single person that has just heard this news," said Goldsborough.

"Behind every single one of those numbers is a family... we are going to be looking at people who are thinking 'Oh heck, what is going to happen? I am one pay cheque away from paying the mortgage, or my rent, or Christmas is coming up at the end of the year'."

There are 1,300 Lotus workers in the UK

The company currently has 1,300 workers in the UK and was founded in the early 1950s by engineer Colin Chapman.

It moved to its site in Norfolk in the 1960s.

The decision to cut the workforce by more than one third followed "a review of Lotus Cars' business objectives in line with the current market conditions", a spokesperson said.

They added: "We believe this is necessary in order to secure a sustainable future for the company in today's rapidly evolving automotive environment."

Prof David Bailey, an economics and business academic at the University of Birmingham, said he was "really scared" about the plant's future.

"It does raise a big question about the future of Hethel and whether this is death by a thousand cuts given we have seen job losses earlier this year or if it really puts Hethel production on a sustainable basis," he said.

He said the company would have been impacted by President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the slow take-up of electric vehicles.

Lotus was founded in the early 1950s by engineer Colin Chapman and moved to its site in Norfolk in the 1960s

A spokesperson at the Department for Business and Trade said: "We recognise carmakers such as Lotus have been facing significant long-term challenges, and we know this announcement will be concerning for workers and their families."

Norfolk County Council said it was setting up a taskforce to offer a comprehensive support package to redundant employees and would connect them with vacancies in the manufacturing and engineering sectors.