Bombardier Workers Protest Outside Parliament

Protesters calling for the US to cancel huge tariffs placed on Bombardier planes have gathered outside Parliament.

Workers travelled from Belfast to unveil a giant banner, urging MPs from all parties to defend Bombardier jobs.

They want the Prime Minister to summon Boeing to a summit with the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and workforce representatives.

Bombardier, which employs more than 4,000 workers in Belfast, has been hit by a proposed 80% levy on exports following complaints by Boeing that the Canadian-owned company had dumped its C Series jets at "absurdly low" prices. It threatens 4,000 jobs in Northern Ireland.

Trade unions representing workers from Bombardier in Northern Ireland will meet with politicians on all sides later to try to cancel the huge US tariffs that could put jobs at risk.

Business Secretary Greg Clark has told MPs the complaint brought by Boeing was completely unjustified and the UK would do everything it could to see the issue resolved.

As part of those efforts, on Tuesday evening Theresa May stressed in a phone call with US president Donald Trump, "the importance of the jobs provided by the Bombardier factory to the people and economy of Northern Ireland".

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said:

"The British government has a duty to defend UK manufacturing jobs against the bullying behaviour of Boeing.

"A failure to do so will signal that any ambition ministers have for a coherent industrial strategy is effectively in tatters and that they are happy to put Trump's America First policy ahead of UK manufacturing jobs.

"Boeing's case is without merit, a fact that prime minster Theresa May has herself admitted. Theresa May and her government need to be battling for Northern Ireland'sBombardier workforce which makes some of the most technologically advanced wings in the world.

"The UK Government must heed the call of Bombardier's Northern Ireland workers and summon Boeing to an urgent summit involving prime minister Theresa May and the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and trade unions.

"Ministers should leave Boeing in no doubt that a failure to do so will lead to sanctions on current and future work on behalf of the UK Government."