PRESSURE was mounting last night for the Government to release cash to help beleaguered Merseyside car manufacture Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Ministers had insisted the firm should look to Indian parent company Tata before asking for a taxpayer loan.

But yesterday it was widely reported that the billionaire owners had ploughed in “tens of millions” to shore up JLR.

Now union leaders remain convinced an announcement on the issue is imminent.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the Unite union, expressed surprise there had not been any public movement from the Treasury or Downing Street.

A skeleton staff clocked on at the Halewood plant yesterday. Most of the 2,000 workers were home on their traditional Christmas break.

As staff in the body and paint departments filtered out after the day shift, one worker told the Daily Post the plant’s order book for 2009 could be almost 30% less than capacity.

Last week, JLR announced that, when the staff return in the New Year, the plant will operate just one shift, not two.

The worker, who refused to give his name, said: “We haven’t got enough cars to do two shifts.

“We need to do 65,000 cars to run two shifts for a year. But the forecasts are between 46,000 and 56,000 from the car sales people.

“We’re just keeping our fingers crossed.”