Given that the UK Government is Boeing’s second biggest client it is inconceivable that ministers have not been able to negotiate a better deal – Smith

Owen
Smith MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, commenting on the announcement
that the US Department of Commerce will introduce additional sanctions on
Bombardier, said:

“While
Theresa May worries about press coverage of the phony P45 she was handed this
week, more than 4,000 Bombardier workers in Belfast are worried that they’ll
receive a real one unless her Government brings Boeing and its allies at the US
Commerce Department to the negotiating table.

"Given
that the UK Government is Boeing’s second biggest client – we spend over £1.5
billion with them every year – it is inconceivable that ministers have not been
able to negotiate a better deal.  

"The
Government must tell the public what pressure it has really placed on Boeing
and on the US Administration. Without any evidence of concrete action, concerns
will grow that UK ministers have naively accepted Boeing’s assurances about the
safety of jobs in Belfast or worse, have negligently accepted Bombardier job losses
as ‘collateral damage’ in their post-Brexit strategy.”