Oldham MP takes fight for local jobs to Downing Street

Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams has written to the Prime Minister to demand the Government support 2,000 workers in Shaw, whose jobs have been put at risk by the closure of a number of Ship Direct sites.

She told the PM she is 'bitterly disappointed' in Shop Direct for failing to speak to her, Mayor Andy Burnham, and the local council.

Shop Direct is the latest in a number of high street and online retailers to announce closures and redundancies. On Thursday, Carpetright declared it would be closing a quarter of its stores as part of a restructuring plan.

Speaking to Key 103, Debbie Abrahams said:

"It is absolutely disgraceful, I haven't had any communication with them until yesterday, so the plans that had been in place for around 18 months, the first I heard was on Wednesday. While I appreciate the limitations of the Shaw site, we could have looked at alternatives that would have met their needs around being purpose built and facilitating the additional requirements they had.

"It's absolutely shocking, not just in terms of me being excluded, but other MPs and other constituencies were also in the dark. Their workers weren't kept up to date. My sister in law works at their Shaw site and she didn't know about this. It's absolutely shocking to treat people in this way.

"What we would like to see is what the scope is for alternative plans to be put into place, but we also need to put plans in place for the worst case scenario that if the site does close, that there is very little redeployment of these workers and we need to make sure people are properly supported and have basic and decent financial packages and that they make the most of any retraining opportunities that come their way."