Owen Smith, Labour’s Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Pontypridd (which includes one of Peacocks’ major distribution centres employing 400 people), responding to the announcement tonight that Peacocks has gone into administration, said:
“Peacocks is a profit-making company and a British success story that’s been let down by the Government and by RBS.“British taxpayers, including Peacocks’ 9,000 workers, will want to know why RBS, which they bailed out and whose executives are set to receive massive bonuses in the coming days, has failed to support a British company and protect British jobs.
“They will also want to know what the Government has done to try and rescue the situation, and whether George Osborne will now face up to the fact that his decision to cut spending and raise taxes too far and too fast has choked off consumer confidence and pushed unemployment up to a 17 year high.”
