Fight to save 209 Liberty Steel jobs moves to Westminster as deadline nears

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Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana has stepped up the battle to prevent the closure of the firm’s plant in her West Midlands constituency

Campaigners bidding to save hundreds of steelworkers’ jobs urged MPs to back their fight today.

Some 209 posts are under threat at Coventry-based Liberty Pressing Solutions after efforts to sell the plant failed.

Staff have until April 21 to save their livelihoods.

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Local Labour MP Zarah Sultana today used a parliamentary device to rally fellow MPs behind the crusade.

Her Early Day Motion “calls on management to redouble efforts to save jobs at Liberty Steel Solutions and find a buyer; and calls on the Government to urgently act to protect skilled jobs at Liberty Pressing Solutions with an industrial strategy and investment to transition to a green, sustainable economy”.

Ms Sultana told the Mirror: “Workers at Liberty Pressing Solutions have decades of experience, with skills that are vital to rebuilding our manufacturing base and for transitioning to a green, sustainable economy.

“That is why it would be a travesty to abandon them and let their skills go to waste – and for the workers and their families, this would be at the worst possible time, with the cost-of-living crisis biting hard.

“The Government needs to step-up and proactively support manufacturing jobs like this with an industrial strategy that secures their long-term, sustainable future.”

Previous customers for the factory’s products included Jaguar Land Rover, Honda, Nissan, BMW, digger-manufacturer JCB and tractor-maker New Holland.

But its future was plunged into jeopardy this month(MAR) when bosses triggered a 45-day consultation on redundancies.

The bombshell for workers came in a “restructuring and refinancing strategy” update from Liberty’s parent company Gupta Family Group Alliance, which was badly hit by the demise of Greensill Capital, its main lender, last year.

GFG said: “Following the announcement in May 2021 that GFG Alliance would be divesting Liberty Pressing Solutions Coventry the Group has actively been seeking potential buyers for the business.

“LPSC has continued to fulfil customer orders through this period, during which operations were funded through shareholder capital.

“The structural long-term downturn in the UK automotive market has meant that it has not been possible to find a buyer for LPSC, and as a result a formal consultation opened on March 7.”

Ms Sultana raised the potential closure in the Commons this week, where Business Minister Lee Rowley told MPs: “The challenges around Liberty are well known.”

The Unite union is also battling to save the posts.

Unite national officer Des Quinn said: “This plant should have a viable future and it is incumbent on the Government and Liberty to work with potential buyers to secure that future as part of a joined-up strategy to ensure that the automotive industry successfully undergoes the transition needed to meet the challenges of the green economy.”

The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015 when the industry was hammered by closures and thousands of job losses.

The sector directly employs 33,700 workers and supports another 42,000 posts in supply chains.

It is worth £2.1billion to the UK economy.