Ex-paymaster general pressures Peugeot

Geoffrey Robinson, the former Treasury paymaster general and now Labour MP
for Coventry North, is to pressure French carmaker Peugeot to keep its Ryton
plant open until 2010, honouring a pledge it made last year.

Robinson, who is also the former chief executive of Jaguar, has called for a
meeting with the company and government ministers after Peugeot revealed
yesterday that the factory would be closed by next year.

He said the company should be challenged over its public and private
statements that the factory was not in immediate danger.

The commitment to keep the Ryton plant open was made by Peugeot’s UK boss
Pierre Louis Colin at last year’s Geneva Motor Show.

The Times reported Robinson as saying: ‘They gave undertakings until
2010. If these were bona fide, then they should honour them. I’ve written to the
company to put these points.’

Peugeot said keeping the plant open was too costly with sales of the 206
model no longer anticipated to meet expectations.