JOBS at a Yeovil aerospace engineers are under threat after an announcement from GKN to scale down or close their activity in Yeovil.

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, former MP for Yeovil, said: “This is very worrying news indeed for Yeovil and South Somerset.”

“I am waiting to discuss these events with the management in the Yeovil factory. Meanwhile, I will be working with my colleague, the Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Daisy Benson to see what action can be taken in Parliament and locally to address the situation.

“It is at present too early to say whether Brexit has had any part to play in these job losses which seem primarily to be the consequence of the Government’s foolish to decision to buy helicopters made abroad rather than at Yeovil.

“Our community is paying a heavy price for a local MP who has neither the standing or the energy to gain influence nor voice over the decisions made by a short-sighted Government.

“Meanwhile this is a challenge for Theresa May as well. She declared that her government would have industrial strategy. Now she must come clean – does that include Britain having helicopter industry or not.

"If so then the government must take action to address the damage that has been done by their shortsightedness, If not then we will know where to look. When further damage is done to Britain’s helicopter industry and the Yeovil and south Somerset community.”