Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott gave his support to the Jaguar Browns Lane workers yesterday at the Labour Party Conference, by being photographed together with them and his own Jaguar car in Brighton.

Prescott appeared with Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Unnion and Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus to back their unions’ campaign for British Jaguar jobs.

The decision by Ford to announce 1,150 job Jaguar job losses on September 17, which unions believe will result in the effective closure of two Jaguar plants in the West Midlands, was, they contend, in breach of their own agreement to keep Brown Lane as the centre for Jaguar production in the UK.

Amicus and the TGWU had a joint emergency resolution to the Labour Party Conference accepted. The unions are urging the government, MPs, MEPs and local councillors to work with them to demand that Ford honours its agreements to Browns Lane and considers alternative options to the effective closure of the site.