Workers at the historic Jaguar plant at Browns Lane in Coventry were today anxiously waiting to find out whether Ford would shut down the factory with the loss of 2,000 jobs.
Speculation was rife that a decision to close the plant, which was home to the E-Type and now makes XJ saloon cars and XK sports vehicles, could come as soon as tomorrow.
In parliament, the Labour MP for Worcester, Mike Foster, urged the government to tell Ford it risked losing a distinctive British brand should production switch elsewhere.
Mr Foster, who worked at both Browns Lane and the Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich in Birmingham before becoming an MP, said: "At Browns Lane there are special skills that work to make Jaguars a unique motor car.
"Those skills, held by British craftsmen and women, will be lost forever if Jaguar close down Browns Lane: you can't have a very British car built on the mass production lines of Detroit."
Rumours over the plant's future first surfaced in August, when Jaguar announced losses of £215m for the second quarter of 2004.
A dramatic drop in demand for Jaguars in America, partly due to the strong pound, has led Ford to demand sweeping cuts. Jaguar chiefs are currently drawing up a restructuring plan to safeguard the company's future.
Jaguar is part of Ford's premier automotive group, which includes, Land Rover, Volvo and Aston Martin. Last week Ford gave its backing to a plan that will secure the future of the Land Rover plant at Solihull, safeguarding thousands of jobs.
Some 50 MPs, including those representing constituencies in Coventry, have already signed a motion opposing plans to shut Browns Lane. The Coventry North East MP, Bob Ainsworth, has said closure would be devastating for a city that has already suffered from job losses at the telecommunications firm Marconi and Massey Ferguson, the agricultural equipment maker.
Louise Beard, a veteran of the Rover taskforce and now chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire chamber of commerce, warned that Jaguar's closure would be a "devastating loss" to the local and regional economies.
Ms Beard believes that if the worst were to happen, a miniature version of the Rover taskforce - set up when the carmaker faced break-up - would need to be established in order to minimise the impact and save jobs.
She told the Coventry Evening Telegraph: "There will be a huge impact on the local supply chain as a great deal of small firms in this area rely on Jaguar for trade. We will also be losing a brand that has been long associated with the city and significant design and technology resources.
"With 2,000 people made redundant, the loss of wealth to the economy would be devastating and could be anything over and above £50m annually."
