By Mark Andrews

Copyright expressandstar

During a visit to Telford today (Thursday), Rachel Reeves revealed that Business Secretary Peter Kyle had met leaders of a number of companies that supplied the car giant.

Production lines at the company, which has an engine plant at i54 near Wolverhampton, have been lying idle since a cyber attack on August 31.

The company has ruled out production restarting before Wednesday next week at the earliest.

Miss Reeves would not be drawn on whether the Government would offer any direct financial support, amid calls by a number of West Midland MPs for a furlough scheme to support suppliers.

She said: “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 yesterday with Jaguar Land Rover, but also, crucially, with the suppliers.

“He met with the supply chain because we recognise the number of smaller businesses impacted, and the number of jobs on the line there is much greater, actually, than the ones directly employed by Jaguar Land Rover, and they often have fewer assets and resources to draw on during these sort of times.”

Miss Reeves said the elected mayor for the West Midlands, Richard Parker, was also working closely with the company.

“The first thing we are focused on is getting the business up and running, the quicker we can do that, the easier it will be, and the business can actually start producing the cars and buying the parts directly,” she said..

“The role of the National Cyber Security Centre, a government-backed organisation, is absolutely crucial, and since the day of that attack, they have been at Land Rover helping them to try to fix this problem.

“We are working intensely with the business to make sure that we stand behind Jaguar Land Rover and the supply chain.

“It is one of the jewels in the crown of the British economy. We’re not going to stand by when these sorts of things happen.”