Blair warned: no jobs, no votes

Tony Blair was warned yesterday that he must act to save Britain's manufacturing industry or risk losing Labour's core working-class vote.

As 80,000 people took to the streets to protest against redundancies at Rover's Longbridge plant, a banner warned the Prime Minister: "If we lose our jobs, you lose yours."

The march came as a new manufacturing industry survey by the GMB revealed that jobs are being lost at a faster monthly rate under Labour than they were under the Tories, and as a second car giant, Honda, said it would halve output at its Swindon factory, albeit pledging to safeguard 3,100 jobs.

It also emerged yesterday that Brussels is to intervene in Alchemy's purchase of Rover from BMW, threatening the deal and thousands of jobs.

According to GMB figures, disclosed to the Independent on Sunday, more than 6,000 jobs a month are being lost in the manufacturing industry. John Edmonds, general secretary of the union, said the crisis was now worse than during the 18 years of Conservative rule when 4,600 jobs a month were lost on average.

He said: "The Government must get to grips with the manufacturing crisis. It is politically unsustainable for a Labour government to preside over a savaging of manufacturing that is worse than the dark days of Thatcherism."

Yesterday Bill Morris, general secretary of the TGWU, warned that problems at Rover, Honda and Ford should be a "wake up call" to industry and the Government". "Just doing nothing is not an option," he said.

Union leaders last week met the Prime Minister to discuss the manufacturing crisis. It was described as a "positive" meeting by Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary of the engineering union AEEU. Sir Ken added his voice to those of other union leaders, including Mr Edmonds, calling for a commitment to join the single currency to prevent industry languishing under the burden of the high value of the pound.

But venture capitalists Alchemy, the firm which wants to buy Rover, believes that involvement with Europe could make matters worse.