By James Rodger

Copyright birminghammail

The Labour Party government has broken its silence over the Jaguar Land Rover outage and cyber attack. Chancellor Rachel Reeves was asked during a ministerial visit whether the Government was set to step in to help firms which supply JLR with components. The Labour Party Cabinet Member spoke out on Thursday, September 25, and responded: “We are working very closely with Jaguar Land Rover, but not just with the company but also with the wider supply chain. “The Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle was in the West Midlands with Jaguar Land Rover and also with many of their suppliers yesterday. It’s a company I know well, it’s a company the Prime Minister knows well. READ MORE UK national speed limit could be slashed in ‘half’ with all drivers warned “The National Cyber Security Centre is in with Jaguar Land Rover, and have been since this cyber attack on them.” Ms Reeves went on, adding: “The focus is both getting the business back up and running as quickly as possible, but also making sure as a Government we are doing everything we can to stand by the company and the wider supply chain.” The outage has led to another week of shutdown at the Birmingham and Coventry car maker. Jaguar Land Rover operates plants in the Black Country and Birmingham, as well as Solihull and Warwickshire . Mike Hawes, the head of Britain’s automotive trade body SMMT, has said the JLR cyberattack’s impact on the supply chain and wider industry on which it depends was “severe and of indeterminate duration”. He said in an emailed statement to Reuters that SMMT was working with JLR, the government and suppliers to identify what additional supportive measures might be needed. Sir Andy Street told Radio 4’s Today Programme that JLR is a “huge success story”. But speaking on Thursday, he added the hack which has forced JLR to halt production since the start of September is now hurting “very successful businesses” in its supply chain. He said to the Beeb: “JLR itself is not asking for a single penny of taxpayers’ money. “JLR and Tata, who stand behind them, are losing hundreds of millions of pounds a week at the moment, and they – to best of my knowledge, I did check this yesterday with the company – They are not asking for any public money. “The issue is separate businesses that could not have expected that. Is it appropriate to use a relatively small amount of public money to sustain them through to future success. “That’s the principle here. And I would argue, if you think of the total income that JLR and its supply chain put into the exchequer, this is a good deal for the exchequer.”