Chancellor George Osborne

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“Rather than a thin-scraping of jam tomorrow, robbed from other parts of the cupboard, what Britain needs today is real investment for growth and we could start by ending the nonsense of sacrificing thousands of manufacturing and supply chain jobs in the East Midlands, which are threatened by shifting train building to Siemens in Germany.

“While George Osborne is talking about some limited investment in transport infrastructure thousands of jobs on the trains, tracks and stations are threatened by the Government’s McNulty rail review. That is a glaring inconsistency that sticks out like a sore thumb.

“You cannot rebuild the economy by dumping skilled and experienced workers on the scrapheap but in the run up to Christmas that is exactly what’s happening in a mirror image of the industrial carnage under Margaret Thatcher.

“RMT wants protection of the jobs of those in work and a guaranteed future for the millions who would immediately benefit from a programme of public works not seen since the Second World War.

“That’s how you build your way out of a double-dip recession – not by slinging more money at the banks that created this crisis.”