WATCH: Mary Creagh urges Government to protect JLR workers’ pensions

Mary Creagh, MP for Coventry East, speaking in Parliament today during the JLR debate

Mary Creagh MP urged the Business Minister to ensure that the pensions of redundant JLR workers are protected during a debate in Parliament today. In previous cases, finance firms have encouraged people to move their defined benefit pensions out of company schemes and into riskier pension plans. In many cases, those investments were mis-sold, leaving workers worse off.

Mary’s full statement to Business Minister Blair McDougall:

“The actions taken by this Government stand in stark contrast to the actions of previous Conservative Governments, who were happy to watch the closure of the Massey Ferguson factory, the Alvis tank factory and Peugeot in Coventry in the ’80s, which led to 20% unemployment in the city where I grew up. After those closures, we saw the financial services industry target workers, some of whom were in defined benefit pension schemes and considering voluntary redundancy, and persuade them to transfer to a less beneficial pension. After firms had gone bust, people realised that they had been mis-sold their pension. Will the Minister take every possible step to protect the pension prosperity of those who will face voluntary or compulsory redundancy at the global headquarters of JLR at Whitley in Coventry?”

Business Minister Blair McDougall’s response:

“My hon. Friend raises a really important point—one that I confess has not come across my desk yet. After this statement, I will make sure that we are raising this point with the relevant regulators, and will perhaps talk to friends in the Treasury about it, because it would be awful if really skilled workers who have a redundancy payment that they have earned through years of hard work have it snatched away by disreputable finance companies.”