Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby has been accused of manipulating the resumption of car production at Longbridge for his own personal glorification.

The criticism comes in a stinging attack from MP Richard Burden, who accuses Coun Whitby of indulging in an ego-trip, attempting to take all of the credit for getting the track rolling again and of exaggerating the significance of the small number of cars being made by the plant’s Chinese owners.

Mr Burden (Lab Northfield), whose constituency includes the former MG Rover factory, describes an article by Coun Whitby in the Birmingham Post, as a “triumph of ego over memory”.

He says the many people involved in a rescue attempt after MG Rover went out of business in 2005 “would not recognise Mike’s claim to have been the personal inspiration behind pretty well everything that was achieved in the hours, days and weeks which followed the collapse of the company”.

In his article, Coun Whitby (Con Harborne) described how he took charge in the immediate aftermath of the crisis – which saw 6,000 jobs disappear – and personally encouraged Chinese firms NAC and SAIC to invest in Longbridge and start making MG sports cars again.
Production began on the first of a new model last week.

But Mr Burden (Lab Northfield) said many organisations and individuals were involved in a joint effort to secure the future of the car plant.
He added: “No politician should claim personal credit for the actions of so many people.”

Mr Burden accuses Coun Whitby of organising “premature media launches” of NAC’s plans in order to produce photo opportunities for himself. He added: “Encouraging NAC to over-hype things in the early stages did not make their task any easier.”

Writing in the Post's Agenda column, Mr Burden says: “Mike also over-eggs his pudding when it comes to the story of China’s investment in Longbridge.

“He deserves the praise he gives himself for the way in which the city council has fostered relations between Birmingham and China and for the supportive attitude he has personally shown to both Nanjing Automobile Corporation and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. But he does his case no credit by simultaneously denying or decrying the efforts of others in this area.”

Mr Burden believes that NAC and Saic were wise to play down last week’s limited resumption of production, adding: “The council’s previous encouragement of a series of overblown but premature media launches of NAC’s plans for Longbridge over the last two years may have produced photo opportunities for council leaders, but they did little in practice to build confidence in the industry or the market when they were inevitably followed by further delays.

“To recognise the real potential of what NAC/Saic can bring to Longbridge we need to keep a sense of perspective on what is happening here. Last week’s announcement is not the return of mass car production or anything like it.”

He goes on to call for greater recognition of the value in trade links with the emerging Chinese market.

“We should recognise the value which the West Midlands can add to China’s investment. China is a rapidly expanding market for cars but it also has a pollution problem which is growing at a terrifying rate both for itself and for the global fight against climate change.

“Our region already has world class skills in performance engineering. Our universities and specialist firms can provide the innovative automotive environmental technologies which China needs to tackle its own pollution problems,” Mr Burden adds.

There is also criticism of the council and transport authority Centro for failing to deliver on a promise to develop a new railway station and transport interchange at Longbridge.

“The result could be that the Longbridge public transport vision ends up being little more than a park and ride scheme with a few more bus stops. They may blame each other for this but the blame game does not change anything,” he says.

A spokeswoman for Coun Whitby said the council leader did not wish to comment on Mr Burden’s article.

* Read Richard Burden's article here >