Trade minister refuses to swap his Jaguar for a a ‘greener’ car

Mar 27 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

A MAVERICK government minister has vowed to keep his Mersey-built Jaguar – despite Gordon Brown's "green" plans to ban the car from the Whitehall fleet.

Digby Jones, the former CBI leader who is now a trade minister, said he would defy the prime minister's order to dump his two-litre X-type Jaguar, made at the firm's Halewood factory.

Mr Brown has decided his ministers must take a lead on protecting the environment by switching to cars that produce carbon emissions below 130g per km.

That means vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, a hybrid car which runs jointly on petrol and electricity, but which – controversially – is made in Japan.

The order has already angered many in Britain's car industry, which is also threatened by higher road taxes on "gas guzzlers".

Now Lord Jones has thrown his weight behind that campaign, saying: "When I took this job, I said I wanted to be driven in a British-made car and that's why I have a X-type Jaguar, made in Liverpool.

Lord Jones said it was pointless to "discriminate" against carmakers such as Jaguar, because they would move abroad – costing thousands of British jobs.

Lord Jones insisted Mr Brown had agreed, when he was appointed last summer, that it was vital for the trade minister to drive a British-made car.

The only exceptions to the rule are where senior ministers require adapted vehicles for security reasons.

Insisting there would be no U-turn over the policy, the prime minister's spokesman said recently: "Over the last two years, the Government Car Agency has shifted to green cars and that has led to a 30% reduction in average emissions.

"We will now accelerate the pace of transition to low emissions vehicles, taking into account operational and security requirements."