Wrexham MP Demands Answers Over Remploy Closure

Wrexham MP Ian Lucas is pushing the UK government to explain why a private sector bid for Wrexham’s Remploy factory was rejected.

In a letter to the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller, he explains how the Wrexham factory had not only been the subject of the bid, but was also attracting interest in its products from organisations in the town.

A contract with Wrexham Council was already set to go ahead until the government’s announcement and Mr Lucas said other organisations in Wrexham were looking to procure goods from the Station Road factory.

In his letter to the Minister, Mr Lucas wrote: “In the letter of rejection to the DEL Chief executive, Mr Ivan Timmis, with whom I have been in constant contact since Tuesday, it is stated ‘your business plan was insufficiently developed and did not contain evidence of continued employment of Remploy workers’ We are all mystified by this statement. No previous indication of such a problem has been given to Mr Timmis. Why has there been no dialogue on this matter?”

He then asks the minister to address the concern and what steps she believes could be taken to rectify the matter.

Mr Lucas said: “I have written to the minister to ask if the government is willing to engage with the private sector bidders.

“At the moment, workers in Wrexham are in a Catch 22 situation; they are set to lose their jobs because the government do not support the private sector bid for their factory. The government say they do not support the bid because it does not ‘contain evidence of continued employment.’

“So workers will lose their jobs now because the government says it is worried they may lose their jobs in the future.

“That cannot be fair. There is a readiness on one side to engage and address concerns; I hope that the minister shares that attitude and we can put this right.”