The Conservatives’ East Belfast general election candidate, Neil Wilson, has reacted with anger to the news that at least 220 jobs will be lost at aerospace firm, Bombardier. He described the firm’s announcement as “another blow to the constituency” and asked “what are East Belfast’s political representatives doing to arrest the decline of industry here?”.
“The sad thing is that East Belfast continues to receive the sort of bad news about industry which has become increasingly rare in the rest of the UK”, Neil said. “The Stormont parties must take their share of the blame for that fact. This announcement from Bombardier follows the news that the Howden Factory at Queen’s Road will close by just a fortnight. That’s potentially 400 jobs gone in less than a month.”
“Unfortunately, we too often have representatives at Stormont and Westminster with little or no experience of working in the private sector and a mind-set focussed on the public sector, including, incidentally, Gavin Robinson, who was lately a £75,000 a year DUP special adviser. This latest announcement is devastating for employees and their families. The current crop of politicians are letting people down in East Belfast, because they seem incapable of acting to protect its great industries.”