Our ‘Support JLR’ campaign has received the full backing of the company’s chief executive. David Bartlett reports

JAGUAR Land Rover chief executive David Smith last night backed the Daily Post’s campaign calling on the Government to support his company through the credit crunch.

Mr Smith said he feared the recession could last for three years, which is why our campaign was vital.

Yesterday, we launched our “Support JLR” campaign, together with sister paper the Liverpool Echo and Midlands stablemates the Birmingham Post and Mail and Coventry Telegraph.

Conservative leader David Cameron also yesterday backed the campaign and called for the Government to introduce a £50bn loan guarantee scheme that JLR could tap into.

JLR employs 2,200 staff at Halewood and more than 13,000 in the west Midlands.

Our campaign urges the Government to provide a short- term loan or stand as guarantor to give banks the confidence to free up funds.

But aid needs to be delivered swiftly. Production levels have been halved. Halewood has already cut 170 temporary and agency jobs and the firm is looking for 598 voluntary redundancies, with more job losses “inevitable,” said chief executive Mr Smith.

“The next few months are likely to be difficult,” he said.

“I think production is going to be at a very low level through Easter, but actually this recession is going to go on for a couple of years, even three years, so we need to make sure we align our job plans for that.”

He described the current economic situation as a “once in a century event where you have a big recession and a lack of bank funding and liquidity in the market at the same time.”